Tom Homan: Biden's border crisis is already brewing and it will accelerate COVID spread in the US

‘Tis the season to be jolly for smugglers of drugs and illegal immigrants into the U.S. across our border with Mexico. They know things are about to change in the U.S. in 2021 and it will benefit them.

President Trump was the worst nightmare for the criminal cartels in Mexico and Central America because he cracked down on their illegal activities with great success. Joe Biden could be their dream come true.

So we can be sure that criminals south of the border are celebrating, counting the days until Biden is inaugurated as president. They know they will soon be back in business and making millions of dollars a day. They couldn’t ask for a better Christmas present, even if they have to wait another month to get it.

Based on Biden’s promises during the presidential campaign, the smugglers know they will soon be able to bring people into the U.S. illegally without suffering any consequences for breaking U.S. laws. This is better than a get-out-of-jail card. It gives lawbreakers a guarantee that they don’t have to worry about ever going to jail.

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If you think I’m exaggerating, you’re wrong. Biden has promised a 100-day moratorium on deportations of illegal immigrants. He’s promised to end Trump’s immigration orders, including the very policies that made the last fiscal year so successful in slowing the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs into the U.S. He’s promised to allow people who claim fear as a reason for asylum to enter the U.S. to make their claim, rather than wait in Mexico.

Almost half of asylum seekers never file or show up for hearings in immigration court. They just remain in the U.S. illegally after they are released and ignore orders to contact the immigration court.

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The truth is that an astounding 88% to 90% of all Central Americans who claim fear when crossing our border never get relief from the U.S. courts, because they simply don’t qualify for asylum or they never show up in court. Soon all they will have to do is wait for Biden to deliver on the amnesty he has promised for those who violate U.S. immigration laws.

Biden has also promised to close detention facilities and has said he will prevent the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) from arresting illegal immigrants at their workplaces. He has also promised to provide free health care to all illegal immigrants.

When I made these points during the election campaign in previous op-eds, I was accused of being a fear monger trying to scare people into voting for President Trump. Actually, I was just pointing out the obvious based on my nearly 35 years of enforcing immigration law.

The truth is that President Trump’s actions to enforce U.S. laws decreased illegal immigration by more than 50 percent in the 2020 fiscal year compared to 2019 fiscal year — and as much as 80 percent compared to the 2017 fiscal year, depending on the month you look at.

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This cut in illegal immigration is an astounding accomplishment never achieved by a U.S. president. It is all the more remarkable when you realize that congressional Democrats fought Trump at every turn.

In the 2019 fiscal year, Customs and Border Protection released over 230,000 arrested illegal immigrants into the U.S.  In the 2020 fiscal year, the number plummeted to only about 1,000. This stunning success was due to President Trump’s Migrant Protection Protocol and the Title 42 COVID-19 declaration, among several other policies he put in place.

Yet if Biden sticks to his campaign promises, he will reverse all the progress Trump has made in enforcing our immigration laws. Biden has sent a message to the entire world that you can enter the U.S. illegally, disrespect this country, not be detained, not be deported, get a job illegally and not be arrested because ICE can’t go to worksites. 

Smugglers and would-be illegal immigrants follow the news, and are well aware that Biden will soon be our president. As a result, illegal immigration is up. Last month, Customs and Border Protection arrested more than 87,000 illegal immigrants, which is already 51% higher than the same month last year. Just five months earlier, that number was only 17,106.

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Because of a recent ruling by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan — in which he said you cannot use Title 42 COVID-19 restrictions to quickly return children entering the U.S. illegally to their her home countries — the number of unaccompanied alien children (UAC) has doubled in the past two weeks, reaching a daily average of 150. In November the number of UAC who entered the U.S. illegally increased 139% from the previous month, as 4,630 children were apprehended.

Biden’s talk of promised incentives and Sullivan’s ruling have created a huge incentive for more children to make the dangerous journey into the U.S. and be exploited by the criminal cartels. Not only may more children die. They will also overwhelm Health and Human Services’ bed capacity.

However, I am sure that Biden’s nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, will look to release these children without detention —providing an incentive for more children to come. Becerra has, after all, sued the Trump administration many times over its immigration orders.

In November, the number of single adults apprehended while entering the U.S. illegally increased by 173% from the same month a year ago. Again, just last month a total of 57,206 adults were also apprehended, a significant increase from previous months.

Jeh Johnson, the Homeland Security secretary in the Obama-Biden administration, said 1,000 apprehensions of illegal immigrants in one day was a bad day. Well, last month the average arrested was 2,308 per day — more than double what Johnson called a bad day. 

Biden says President Trump has mishandled the coronavirus pandemic. I argue that Trump’s actions on the border and the Title 42 declaration prevented many illegal immigrants with COVID-19 from coming into the U.S., protecting the American people.

Biden’s promises, which will lead to unprecedented surges in illegal immigrations, will bring COVID-19 into the U.S. in incredible numbers.

The unaccompanied alien children who are apprehended at our border right now test positive for COVID-19 at least 11% of the time. The adults are not being tested because they are being sent back immediately. However, when Biden stops that return-to-Mexico program, how many COVID-infected illegal immigrants will be released into the U.S.? 

The Border Patrol arrests illegal immigrants from over 176 different countries. Should we give them rapid COVID-19 tests, which will certainly affect how many tests will be given to at-risk Americans and first responders? Who gets priority?

When you have a caravan and family groups numbering a few hundred, as we have seen before, what do you do if several of them have COVID-19? The whole group has been exposed. Where do you take them? To a Border Patrol Station to infect others already there? Where do you detain them? 

Remember, Biden said he would end detention facilities contracted by ICE. Do you release illegal immigrants with COVID-19 in the U.S.? 

And when the surge of new illegal immigrants attracted by Biden’s open-door policies gets out of hand, what do you do with all these people?

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The Border Patrol facilities are still the same size. Will we hear Democrats screaming again about the detention conditions at Border Patrol stations because of the almost guaranteed overcrowded conditions that Biden’s will cause? The only way around that is to immediately release illegal immigrants, even if they are ill with COVID-19.

What is coming is the perfect storm, unless Biden realizes that tearing down everything President Trump has done to significantly decrease illegal immigration is a very bad idea. If Biden keeps his campaign promises on illegal immigration, it will cost the U.S. dearly.

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