http://nypost.com/2024/06/04/us-news/border-agents-slam-biden-for-too-little-too-late-order/
By Jennie Taer
The New York Post
June 4, 2024
Border Patrol agents believe President Joe Biden’s last-minute executive order to limit border crossings is “way too little too late” after he’s already allowed millions to enter the US illegally without consequence.
The Biden administration announced an executive order Tuesday claiming it will close the border after illegal migrant encounters hit 2,500 per day between points of entry for seven consecutive days.
Five border agents told The Post the president’s inaction for three and a half years has already resulted in irreparable damage to the country’s national security, and they feel this latest measure is all for show.
“That’s like trying to plug the leak on the titanic with chewing gum. It’s way too little too late. He’s trying to act tough on the border but we know he’s been the most open border administration ever,” one agent said.
Despite the measure being billed as a “crackdown,” it will still permit 1.75 million new arrivals to the US, when the 2,500 a day are added to others allowed into the country through the the CBP One phone app, and via humanitarian parole paths.
The order, which is expected to take effect immediately, lifts border restrictions two weeks after the number of crossings averages 1,500 for seven consecutive days, senior administration officials said Tuesday.
Migrants rest in Mexico City while traveling in a caravan to the US. AFP via Getty Images
Border agents have encountered more than 7.6 million migrants crossing the southern border illegally. An additional 1.7 million migrant “gotaways” are known to have illegally sneaked over unapprehended during the Biden administration.
Additionally, roughly 500,000 others have entered the US using the CBP One phone application Biden began using for such purposes.
There have also been over 400,000 migrants from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela who have flown to the US using another parole program also started by Biden.
“What a joke. Like that’s going to stop them. He can enact whatever he wants. Until we deport everyone that crosses or imprison them, it won’t stop,” a second agent said of Biden’s new plan.
Biden’s latest order models a portion of the bipartisan border bill that failed to pass the Senate in February, which gave the president authority to expel migrants when border crossings reached the same daily average.
The bill allowed for the suspension of that authority two weeks after the seven-day average falls to 75% of those levels.
“It’s way too little, too late. Nothing more than virtue signaling,” a third agent said.
“That’s comical,” said a fourth agent. “Millions are in [the US] now and it’s just now that they realize the number of crossings a day is a problem. The damage is done and now the administration wants to slowly close the valve on the flood gates.”
Biden insisted in January he required Congress to approve border legislation before he could take any action on the issue, saying he had “done all I can do.”
“Just give me the power. I’ve asked from the very day I got into office,” he said at the time. “Give me the Border Patrol, give me the people, the judges — give me the people who can stop this and make it work right.”
The president has since changed his tune with polling consistently showing that ahead of the November presidential election, American voters are increasingly concerned with illegal immigration and enhanced border enforcement ranked as a top concern for voters.
“According to him he couldn’t do an executive order for that ... only Congress? So has he been lying to us? Such a cover your ass waste of time,” a fifth agent said.
Retired Deputy Patrol Agent in Charge of the El Paso Station Clay Thomas also pointed to major loopholes in Biden’s plan that he told The Post smugglers will exploit.
The loopholes include allowing admission for migrants who either make claims of fear of returning to their home countries, are unaccompanied minors, are victims of trafficking or have medical emergencies.
“You just gave them the answer,” Thomas said of the cartels’ operations.
“They already know how to do this and they basically are rewriting their business plan based on what the Biden administration outlined.”
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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