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Busting MAGA Myths: Trump had no Terrorists at the Border [1]
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Date: 2023-11-03
If you listen to the MAGAs the border is open — even though that truly isn’t the case — and over the last 2 years, there have been a flood of terrorists entering through the Southern Border.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, discusses whether the Pentagon will hold Iran responsible for drone attacks on U.S. troops in the Middle East on 'Varney & Co. x x YouTube Video Varney: Border Patrol is warning that terrorists from Hamas and Hezbollah may have crossed our Southern Border. They’re here. What are we doing about this? What can we do about this if they’re already here? Ernst: Well it’s a little too late and thats the story of this Administration under Joe Biden. They are so intent on appeasing all of these authoritarian regimes even so much as to allowing and open border where Hamas and other organizations can easily cross.
Fox then shows a list of people apprehended at the border who happen to be on the Terror Watch List.
Fiscal Year Apprehended 2017 2 2018 6 2019 0 2020 3 2021 15 2022 98 2023 169
This gives the impression that Terrorist at the border is dramatically increasing.
However, I found these numbers at CBP Enforcement for 2023 and they don’t match Fox’s numbers at all.
This table provides a summary of OFO encounters of all persons at ports of entry with records within the TSDS (Terrorist Screening Dataset) at the time of their encounter.
FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23YTD Office of Field Operations TSDS Encounters at Land Border Ports of Entry of All Nationalities* Southwest Border 116 155 280 72 103 67 80 Northern Border 217 196 258 124 54 313 484 Total 333 351 538 196 157 380 564 U.S. Border Patrol TSDS Encounters Between Ports of Entry of Non-U.S. Citizens Southwest Border 2 6 0 3 15 98 169 Northern Border 0 0 3 0 1 0 3 Total 2 6 3 3 16 98 172 Percentage of Total USBP Encounters 0.0007% 0.0015% 0.0004% 0.0007% 0.0010% 0.0044% 0.0083%
The year with the highest terrorist apprehensions for all nationalities prior to 2023 was 2019 with 538. FY23 has a total of 564. If you compare year to year there are variances but it really doesn’t seem like things were dramatically better prior to 2020. For example, the totals between 2020 and 2021 are 196 and 157.
Not all that different.
Of course, this is for people on the watch list that *includes* Americans and you’ll notice that most of the entries are at the Northern Border, rather than the Southern.
If you look at the second set of rows you do notice numbers are exactly similar to Fox’s for people who are “Non-citizens.” Interesting that there are so many more citizens on the Terrorist Watchlist than Non-citizens.
Why exactly doesn’t Fox talk about *those* terrorists?
As another example, how many criminals have been apprehended at the border year to year?
CRIMINAL APPREHENSIONS FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23YTD Office of Field Operations Criminal Noncitizens Encountered3 10,596 11,623 12,705 7,009 6,567 16,993 20,166 NCIC4 Arrests 7,656 5,929 8,546 7,108 8,979 10,389 11,509 U.S. Border Patrol Criminal Noncitizens Encountered3 8,531 6,698 4,269 2,438 10,763 12,028 15,267 Criminal Noncitizens with Outstanding Wants or Warrants 2,675 1,550 4,153 2,054 1,904 949 988
It’s not 10-12k criminals per year encountered during Trump’s time is minuscule. It’s not like those numbers are zero. Those are serious numbers, and obviously there was a drop during the Covid years followed by an increase.
President Biden has literally arrested and expelled millions of migrants under Title 42.
Arrests and Expulsions for FY23
As you can see from the totals, 2 Million people were apprehended and expelled at the border during FY2023. 1.5 Million under Title 8 and 550k under Title 42. And there were millions more in 2021 and 2022.
It seems like the GOP is reading these numbers and thinking this is the number of people who are being allowed in, when that simply isn’t the case. They’re being kept out.
That’s a lot of people, and as shown in the chart below — it’s been the majority of people encountered (50—80%) at the border each month.
Figure 2: Estimated Outcomes of Border Apprehension, February 2021 through April 2022
This includes further details from the American Immigration Council.
Under an agreement reached with the Mexican government in late March 2020, the Border Patrol began sending to Mexico most Mexican, Guatemalan, Honduran, and Salvadoran families and single adults encountered at the southern border. The group of nationalities subject to expulsion to Mexico remained unchanged until May 2022, when the Biden administration reached an agreement with Mexico to accept “thousands” of Cubans and Nicaraguans as well. Despite this agreement, there has been extensive documentation of individuals expelled to Mexico who do not fit within this category, including Haitian asylum seekers. People expelled are usually driven by bus to the nearest port of entry and told to walk back to Mexico, often without their luggage and other belongings. Since late January 2021, the Mexican state of Tamaulipas (which borders South Texas) has barred CBP from expelling families with children under the age of seven. In response, CBP has carried out “lateral” transfers by plane or bus to other locations along the border, such as El Paso, where Mexican authorities will allow the agency to expel families with young children. However, because the capacity to carry out “lateral flights” is limited, CBP has been forced to release the majority of families who cross the border in South Texas, despite President Biden’s prior insistence that he would expel all families if he could. [...] Title 42 not only applies to individuals crossing the border between ports of entry, but also applies equally to individuals seeking asylum at ports of entry. In March 2020, as part of Title 42, CBP stopped processing all asylum seekers who arrive at ports of entry and ask for humanitarian protection. This left nearly 15,000 people in limbo who had been waiting on lists for an opportunity to request asylum at ports of entry (a practice known as “metering”). Before the practice of expelling unaccompanied children was blocked in court and then later formally ended by the Biden administration, CBP used Title 42 to turn away and expel nearly 16,000 unaccompanied children. These expulsions took place despite provisions of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act which require the government to protect children who arrive at the border without a parent or legal guardian.
I really don't see how the border is “open” when 60-70% of the people encountered are immediately thrown out again, and another 15% end up being immediately deported and or in ICE detention.
Only about 25% are “released” at the border and all of those people are given future dates for immigration hearings which will ultimately determine their fate. The reason that happens is they don’t have Covid, haven’t committed a crime, aren’t on the watch list or simply don’t have a criminal record so there’s no reason to hold them, and they are still subject to due process.
They get to have a hearing.
Approximately 85% of these people will show up for their hearing and that increases to 96% when they are provided a lawyer (as they were under Obama, but not Trump)
About 40% of them are subject to deportation after their hearings, and they are in fact, deported if that happens.
That’s following the law. That’s how the process is designed to work.
The number of people who show up at the border is not something that the President can control. They’re coming due to the conditions in their own country, but the key item here is that it’s the Republicans who keep claiming the “Border Is Open” — it’s those statements that make people that they can just walk right in — even though they clearly can’t — and that is what is mostly likely the cause of people trying to do exactly that. They’re being told repeatedly “The Border Is Open” when it’s clearly not.
They’re listening to people making this claim just like Joni Ernst — because the GOP says it all the time — not Joe Biden.
It just isn’t the case.
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