The sun was setting on a beautiful Sunday evening in Mission, Texas, and I was standing at the base of the U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight” played in the background at Cabrera’s Bar, a quaint, small cantina less than 20 yards away. Looking out into the field of grass, rock, and dirt on the other side of the wall, I spotted a group of about 20 illegal immigrants, about 120 yards away, emerging from a field of trees. They walked down a dirt path toward an opening in the wall when a Border Patrol agent drove up to them.
“She’s directing them to the consolidation point,” another border patrol officer in a vehicle next to me said.
“Consolidation point? Where is that?” I asked.
“By the bridge,” the Border Patrol officer said, which I think was the nearby Anzalduas International Bridge.
And that was it. No immigrants were taken into custody. No enforcement to return anyone to the other side of the border. Nothing. Just a Border Patrol agent driving up to the group and about 1 or 2 minutes later, turning around and leaving them alone.
I couldn’t believe my own eyes as to what I was seeing. This wasn’t border security. It was a de facto committee providing illegal immigrants directions to the nearest welcoming center.
Welcome to Joe Biden’s U.S.-Mexico border.
There’s a border crisis plaguing the country with a record number of illegal immigrant encounters in 2022. Despite this crisis, I was able to visit the U.S.-Mexico border before President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. It’s not an exaggeration to say that things are worse than ever at the border since Biden became president. To say Biden contributed to this bedlam would be a vast understatement. Consider the available data.
A recent federal court filing revealed that the Department of Homeland Security reported 153,941 illegal immigrant encounters in January (I witnessed about 20 of them), up nearly 100% from January 2021 (78,414), and up more than 300% from January 2020 (36,585).
“Ever since Jan. 20, 2021, the border has been absolute chaos,” the Border Patrol officer told me. “Laws work. Biden has absolutely no idea what he’s doing.”
Biden’s shameful immigration policies significantly contributed to this — beginning with his decision to stop building the border wall. The current situation is an embarrassment. There are sections of wall and sections of open area. There are old border barriers next to new border wall, next to open fields, next to more walls.
Observing it first hand, I can emphatically say that the Biden Homeland Security Department does little if anything to stop illegal immigrants from crossing. Combined with the Biden administration’s tactics that Border Patrol officers are forced to use, it is almost a farce to say we have any border security at all.
Earlier in the day, at a rally against Biden’s immigration policies at Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, I saw some of the disastrous results of Biden’s wall decision. There were tall steel barriers, followed by gaps of open land, next to more tall steel barriers, next to significantly shorter rails. Retired Navy Rear Adm. Chuck Kubic attended the rally. He has a construction company that was contracted to build the border wall when Trump was president. He explained the reason behind the differences in the wall.
The taller wall was new construction that the Trump administration ordered. This “Trump Wall” is 18 feet high with a steel plate at the top, designed to prevent people from climbing over. When Biden entered office, he halted all border wall construction. However, in some areas, because of the construction that already happened, not continuing with construction threatened the structural integrity of the area. Biden permitted construction in these areas to avoid any danger but ordered the wall to be significantly shorter and referred to as a “rail.” As a result, “Biden’s wall” is only six feet tall — and quite easy to climb over. The two sections are directly next to each other.
Furthermore, at this particular section, where both walls ended, a dirt path led to an open paved road that led into the city without any restrictions. In essence, these walls were nothing more than physical barriers that provided illegal immigrants with an additional cardio workout. All they have to do is walk along the border until they find an opening. It’s a Swiss cheese conglomerate of steel pylons scattered across the Texas-Mexico border. Unfortunately, this is just one of many similar scenarios that make up the hundreds of miles of the U.S.-Mexico border.
The surge of illegal immigrants has left Border Patrol overwhelmed. Many officers are required to spend their time processing immigrants, which, in turn, takes away from available personnel to patrol and protect the border, leaving the country vulnerable to criminals entering. Under the Biden administration, there are few, if any consequences, for immigrants entering illegally and breaking the law.
Making matters worse is the egregious violence happening along the border. Such violence has been blatantly ignored by Biden, Democratic officials, and legacy media outlets. Moreover, this violence endangers the lives of many people, including border patrol agents. A tour along the Rio Grande Valley sector of the border organized by the group Veterans for America First the night before my excursion provided a firsthand account of the hazardous environment.
“It is common practice at the border for the cartels to place snipers in the trees on the Mexican side at night to protect narcotic trafficking coming across, said Stan Fitzgerald, senior adviser for Veterans for America First. “During a nighttime surveillance mission (with a group that included Adm. Chuck Kubic), Adm. Kubic did in fact verify with night vision that snipers were pointing weapons at us.”
More evidence of the dangerous violence along the border is a recent report by Anna Giaritelli of the Washington Examiner. Here, she discusses an alert by the U.S. Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley sector that warned of “possible cartel violence toward U.S. law enforcement personnel.” It specified that the cartels were “discussing killing U.S. law enforcement personnel along the border.”
I witnessed firsthand how easy it is for any illegal immigrant to enter the United States. Under Biden, it is also easier for drug cartels to move their product. Under Biden, border security exists in name only.
