The Border Crisis Has Many Causes

Misbar discovered that during the first six months in office, the Biden administration has announced several policy changes that impacted the southern U.S. border. For example, the Biden administration canceled all border wall construction for the time being. According to NBCnews.com, as of January 2021, the Trump administration built just 47 miles of border wall where none existed before. President Barack Obama left office with 654 miles of border fencing in existence, and Trump left with 701 miles of border fencing.

President Biden also announced plans to allow 62,000 refugees into the US in 2021 and pledged to increase the refugee cap in 2022 to 125,000 according to BBC.com. About 110,000 refugees were admitted to the U.S. in the last year of Barack Obama's final presidential term. According to CNN.com, “The US is on track to encounter more than 2 million migrants at the US-Mexico border by the end of the fiscal year, marking a record high.”

While the number of immigrants trying to enter the U.S. is on record pace, the immigration situation is not new to the Biden administration. In 2014, the U.S. government declared a crisis at the border to address the rapid increase in the number of women and unaccompanied children migrating through border crossings, especially into Texas according to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. Seven years later, it continues to be a crisis.

Migration is a complex equation according to many who have been involved with the process. According to former President George W. Bush, “The immigration system is broken because Congress has failed to act." President Bush added, “The people who are guilty, really guilty, are the people who exploit human misery, and charge money to desperate people, and bring them to the border with no plan to get them into the country." 

There does not seem to be evidence that the Biden administration caused the increase in immigration across the U.S. borders. In 2019, under the Trump administration, there was a large jump in migration before the borders were slowed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Without any recent economic or humanitarian improvement in Central America, home of many who are trying to enter the U.S., it is not surprising that the same number or more of immigrants would try to leave their homeland to come to the U.S. The crisis is not so much about the border, rather it is about the central America region and the plight of the migrants themselves according to the Washington Post.