Without any real debate — without congressional hearings, new legislation, or anything more than a series of executive orders — President Biden has effectively put in place a complete open-border policy on the southwest border. All he had to do was signal, with the stroke of a pen, that if you can get into the US, you can probably stay.
Predictably, illegal immigration surged. But so did legal admissions of asylum-seekers who had been barred from entering the country under stricter Trump-era policies and pandemic border security measures.
The message up and down the border was clear: Biden will let you in.
The result, whether Biden will admit it or not, is a full-blown crisis. So many unaccompanied migrant children are entering the country right now that federal agencies responsible for housing them are nearing capacity, even as they scramble to find more facilities, including US military bases and temporary tent shelters.
Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services said it had more than 7,700 children in its custody — more than it has ever had at one time. The number of migrant children crossing the border is on pace to exceed the all-time record by a whopping 45 percent, according to federal officials, who are scrambling to find up to 20,000 beds to house unaccompanied minors.
Meanwhile, migrant camps in Mexican border towns are quickly emptying out thanks to Biden’s executive order ending the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” program. One shelter in the Mexican city of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, housed more than 3,000 migrants.
It’s now deserted after several large groups of migrants were escorted over the border by officials with the United Nations.
Migrants crossing the Rio Bravo river to request asylum in El Paso, Texas on March 4, 2021.
Predictably, illegal immigration surged. But so did legal admissions of asylum-seekers who had been barred from entering the country under stricter Trump-era policies and pandemic border security measures.
The message up and down the border was clear: Biden will let you in.
The result, whether Biden will admit it or not, is a full-blown crisis. So many unaccompanied migrant children are entering the country right now that federal agencies responsible for housing them are nearing capacity, even as they scramble to find more facilities, including US military bases and temporary tent shelters.
Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services said it had more than 7,700 children in its custody — more than it has ever had at one time. The number of migrant children crossing the border is on pace to exceed the all-time record by a whopping 45 percent, according to federal officials, who are scrambling to find up to 20,000 beds to house unaccompanied minors.
Meanwhile, migrant camps in Mexican border towns are quickly emptying out thanks to Biden’s executive order ending the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” program. One shelter in the Mexican city of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, housed more than 3,000 migrants.
It’s now deserted after several large groups of migrants were escorted over the border by officials with the United Nations.

Migrants crossing the Rio Bravo river to request asylum in El Paso, Texas on March 4, 2021.