Recent reports show how damaging the southern border crisis continues to be, as millions of migrants stream into the U.S. illegally. Even Barack Obama’s Homeland Security secretary, Jeh Johnson, admitted, “[T]his needs to be, for the Biden administration, for the U.S. government, an all-hands-on-deck, whole-of-government effort to address this crisis.” It’s turning “cities upside down,” he insisted. Ten years ago, Johnson shook his head, “[We] felt like the world was coming to an end” when the numbers were a fraction of what they are now.
This week in New York City, nursing home residents were forced to relocate to make room for undocumented migrants. Frank Tammaro, a 95-year-old Korean War veteran, was given less than two months to find a new living situation. Additionally, unregistered cars and illegal drivers have been found throughout NYC. Witnesses told Breitbart News that they’re seeing more car accidents, migrants “barbecuing in the woods” near playgrounds, and parking lots left cluttered with trash and broken-down furniture.
On Wednesday’s edition of “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins,” Todd Bensman, senior national security fellow for the Center for Immigration Studies, discussed causes and dangers of this crisis.
Bensman has spent a lot of time covering border issues. As a former journalist, he covered the Mexican government’s war on the drug cartels in the early 2000s. Prior to working for the Center for Immigrations Studies, he was involved in the intelligence business regarding the border at the Texas Department of Public Safety Intelligence Counterterrorism Division. “[I]t’s just kind of in my blood,” he said.
Perkins said the question on many people’s minds is whether this loss of border control is intentional. Bensman answered, “Yes, it’s very purposeful. This is not incompetence.”
He continued, “It’s [the Biden administration’s] stated spoken policy to create ‘lawful pathways’ [for illegal immigrants to come] over that border into the country … Never anything about blocking, stopping, deterring, ending illegal immigration. Just facilitating it. It’s really the first time in American history that we’ve ever had an administration take that position.” Bensman went on to say that “ideologues” in the White House who believe borders are “evil and immoral” is what led to this border crisis.
Additionally, Bensman said, “This is a historic mass migration crisis by every metric. We have never had anything like this in the American experience. And, so, our infrastructure for dealing with it has completely collapsed.” Perkins added, “There’s really nothing being done to stop this from happening. [A]s you said, it can’t be incompetence. It has to be intentional.”
The discussion also shed light on how this crisis has “empowered and enriched” drug cartels by increased drug trafficking, which Bensman noted as their main source of income. As he explained, this is a threat because, with that money, the cartels could buy arms, tanks, grenades, and anything military grade they can get their hands on.
Bensman further emphasized how this catastrophe is directly linked to the Biden administration. But these policies can be reversed, he argued, by bringing an elected official into the White House, a Republican in particular, who will work on reversing what has been put into effect, which is “the only possible end in sight.” However, the damage from these policies may not be reversable, he added.
“It’s truly the ultimate stranger danger. … We have no idea who’s crossing that border, but they’re crossing and being allowed in by the millions,” Bensman said.
Perkins concluded, “[T]his is another example, just one of many, of how elections matter. We need to pray, we need to vote, and we need to stand.”
