Joe Biden, having apparently been warned by his handlers that now even Democrats are beginning to complain about his disastrous border policies, is said to be preparing an announcement of a new plan to deal with the chaos on our southern flank.
Politico is reporting this morning that the announcement will come today and will affect only those migrants from Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua. It will be modeled after a program already in place for Venezuelans, which allows up to 24,000 migrants (one assumes, per month, but that’s hard to pin down) who can demonstrate access to financial support and who enter the U.S. at official entry points. Others will be turned away through Title 42. (The Venezuelan plan was, in turn, based upon one for Ukrainians announced earlier last year.)
Title 42 returnees are sent back to Mexico, which has to agree to receive them. Currently, Mexico is said to have agreed to accept up to 30,000 per month.
There’s less to this than meets the eye, of course. For one thing, illegal migrants come from many, many more countries than the four mentioned; in fact, they come from virtually every country in the world. For another, the Biden administration has been trying to get rid of Title 42, not rely upon it as its primary tool for denying entry. After all, T42 is a public health policy, employed in response to the Covic pandemic and Joe Biden has himself declared that pandemic over. And, finally, 30,000 per month is a drop in the bucket. Estimates of the number of illegal “encounters” in FY 2022 go as high as 2.4 million. That averages out to 200,000 per month. And that’s not counting the “got-aways,” which last year are estimated to have averaged another 50,000 per month.
Joe Biden’s sudden awakening to the border crisis and his resultant “plan” are way too little and way, way too late.
Oh and by the way, Biden also says he “intends” to visit the border on his way to the “Three Amigos” conference–with Trudeau of Canada and López Obrador of Mexico–next week. We’re sure that will help.
For more, see News Nation.