I Was at the Southern Border at Midnight. Here’s What Happened.
The Biden administration has yet to acknowledge and address the crisis occurring at our southern border—especially in the Rio Grande Valley where apprehensions are soaring more than anywhere else.
This week, I traveled to this region to see first-hand the situation at our southern border. Within hours of getting off of my flight, I witnessed the magnitude of the border and humanitarian crisis that is playing out.
Without a doubt, this crisis has resulted from the Biden administration’s dismantlement of the nation’s border security and immigration enforcement apparatus.
After flying into McAllen, Texas, I drove to an undisclosed location at midnight near the Rio Grande river. Within minutes of me arriving to this location, I witnessed Border Patrol Agents apprehend dozens of unaccompanied minors and family units who had just crossed the river to enter the country illegally.
Within two hours, I counted approximately 200 apprehensions—figures seen as a “quiet night” for Border Patrol, according to an agent I spoke to (even though he was sweating profusely as if the night had hit a historic record).
Even more startling was that every single migrant voluntarily surrendered themselves to Border Patrol. Not a single one attempted to evade or resist authorities. But these migrants knew exactly what they were doing.
Migrants and human smugglers know full well that under the current administration, their chances of being removed from the country are virtually zero—as the administration has suspended the Migration Protection Protocols (MPP), has directed ICE to apprehend fewer illegal aliens in the interior of the country, and is not fully utilizing Title 42.
The cartels and human smugglers in Mexico are exploiting these policy changes and are profiting immensely from transporting migrants across the Rio Grande river into the U.S. This was confirmed after I found dozens of neon yellow bracelets on the ground that read “entregas” in Spanish or roughly translated to “deliveries” in English.
It was clear that the vast majority of these migrants were either family units or unaccompanied minors. Some migrants were practically infants who could not walk on their own. This demographic trend is likely in response to the Biden administration not immediately expelling family units or unaccompanied minors who enter the country illegally.
Because many of the temporary detention facilities in this area were never built to accommodate families and children, these individuals are then crammed into horrific conditions—specifically at the Donna Facility just minutes away from the Rio Grande river—and the Biden administration is doing little to nothing to improve these conditions.
The administration’s radical immigration policies and messaging—including introducing legislation that provides amnesty for virtually every illegal alien in our country—have encouraged individuals to travel thousands of miles by foot to our border.
In this same location, I found left-behind travel documents indicating that migrants were traveling to the border from the Northern Triangle countries—especially from El Salvador. This means that they were traveling thousands of miles and putting themselves at serious risk of violence (some 7 in 10 report facing violence on this trek) because the words and deeds of President Biden clearly indicated to them that coming to our border will be rewarded with admission to the United States.
Our country is not seeing much of this horrific situation not because it is far away from them but because the vast majority of the media have been blocked from accessing detention facilities and interviews with immigration authorities at the border.
In fact, while still in this same location this night, I spoke to a number of reporters who all said it was nearly impossible to provide much content to the American public because of the restrictions placed on them by the Biden administration.
What does President Biden want to hide so badly that he won’t let us see it? one reporter asked me.
In just one night, I could confirm that there is a raging crisis occurring at our southern border.
Immigration authorities are witnessing illegal migration surges they have never seen on-record before and are being overworked. Detention facilities are in horrid conditions and are at above capacity amidst a pandemic. The media are not allowed to access these facilities or interview authorities at the border despite President Biden pledging to improve transparency in his administration.
From my short experience in the Rio Grande Valley, I can attest that what is happening at our nation’s southern border is a full-blown border and humanitarian crisis that has been exacerbated by the Biden administration’s policies and messaging and has no end in sight.