Date: December 6, 2022
Host: Jim Schneider
Guest: Todd Bensman
America’s border crisis continues to be a huge issue, particularly at the southern border and as it pertains to national security. About 2.4 million encounters have taken place at the U.S./Mexico border in fiscal year 2022. In October it was almost 200,000 more and there appears to be no end in sight.
We’re in a very dangerous time, even as it pertains to the “lame duck” session where there’s great desperation to get something through, not only on a continuing resolution basis, but also an attempt to pass, without hearing or without debate, what’s being called “The Equal Access to Green Cards for Legal Employment Act of 2022.” (HR3648)
Appearing on Crosstalk to address several aspects of the border debate was Todd Bensman. Todd is senior National Security Fellow for the Center for Immigration Studies. He’s the author of Overrun: How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest Border Crisis in U.S. History and America’s Covert Border War: The Untold Story of the Nation’s Battle to Prevent Jihadist Infiltration. He formerly worked at the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division, where he managed teams of intelligence analysts that worked in concert with federal homeland security and U.S. Intelligence Community agencies to identify and mitigate terrorism threats.
Todd began by describing how the Biden administration has discreetly begun a program along the border where both the Mexicans and Americans collaborate on legalizing immigrants before they cross into the U.S. This is done between the two governments via what’s known as “CBP-1.” This is an online, secure, DHS platform where all of the names of the prospective crossing individuals are entered along with their data. The Mexicans are given the secure passcode to the website in order to enter that data ahead of time. From there, Mexican immigration loads the individuals onto buses, drives them to bridges or ports of entry, and hands them off to the Americans for release into the country. This “humanitarian parole” as it’s called, includes work authorization for up to one year.
Jim responded that this makes the Biden administration appear to be the smuggler as illegal entry is now being viewed as legal. Todd agreed and noted that while we don’t know the numbers, they must be large because the shelter systems on the Mexican side are having to expand under pressure due to so many people from around the world that are attempting to take advantage of this. Some are even sleeping in the streets waiting for bed space.
Todd described how this program is unfolding all along the land border from the Pacific coast to the Gulf of Mexico. People are being handed off at nearly every port of entry, every day. All of this is in line with the Biden administration’s frequently stated goal of creating quote, “…legal pathways for all immigrants to cross over the southern border and to make it safe, orderly, and humane.”
How can this be a legal pathway when Congress hasn’t authorized it to take place? Is the way this is being handled setting the stage for additional corruption in the U.S.? How is the media in the border states handling this issue? What is the relationship between this issue and Title 42? These and other questions are answered on this important edition of Crosstalk.