The current president and a former and likely future president visited the U.S.-Mexico border today, and what they said and saw was very different.

President Joe Biden's February 29 visit to Brownsville, Texas, near the Gulf Coast, was oddly appropriate, as Biden's correct policy prescriptions are as rare as a leap day that occurs once every 1,461 days. Because it is.

For Biden, Brownsville is all about optics. It is the quietest of the border regions, with no illegal encounters recorded on Monday and President Trump might even call it “sleepy.” 34 people in the first three days of this week.

look? The border is safe! Don't believe your lies…

But if you travel 350 miles up the Rio Grande to Eagle Pass, where President Donald Trump will stop, you'll find a different landscape. There are 1,273 illegal immigrants encountered 3 days from February 25th to 27th — what we know.

Still, Eagle Pass and the entire Texas-Mexico border are a success story, with Congress passing new legislation to legalize a significant influx of legal immigrants in order to somehow control illegal immigration, human trafficking, and illegal immigration. It shows the emptiness of Biden's argument that we need to do more. Deadly Fentanyl. These are the plagues that have spread to America, with Biden reversing Donald Trump's successful policies on his inauguration day. Here, the number of encounters with illegal immigrants decreased in all five sectors of Texas in January 2024 compared to the previous year. A 70% decrease in the Big Bend division and a 32.7% decrease in the Laredo division..

Meanwhile, in California and Arizona, states with Democrats in the governor's mansion, illegal traffic increased by a whopping 55% from January 2023 to January 2024. The decline in illegal crossings in Texas simply moved westward, with an overall decrease of only 4% along the southern border. %.

How did this change come about? Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) was carried out Biden Border Crisis Wargame Six weeks before President Biden took office, predicting a shift westward. We calculated that Texas Governor Greg Abbott would redouble his efforts to secure our borders after thoroughly considering the options available to the sovereign nation. As a result, Mexican criminal cartels will shift their core business activities to the West, where illegal trade is more welcoming.

This shows that border security measures like the wall, Rio Grande buoys, and bellows wire are working.

Of course, Congressional Open Borders hates measures to deter illegal immigration. The Biden administration has filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas to remove the wires and retract the buoys. Both measures reduced illegal traffic and saved lives on both sides of the border. This saved the lives of would-be crossers who were told they should not or should not cross. Across the river across the bridge, American lives were lost to drug addiction.

TPPF served as co-counsel for the State of Texas, defending Texas' right to secure its borders. Fence cutting incident and as amicus curiae For about 20 members of parliament, buoy case. Notably, Biden's approval ratings on the border have plummeted. No.1 publication in the nation — The administration has yet to remove barbed wire barriers in Texas.

But the Biden administration sued Texas over the new law in January. SB4This would allow local law enforcement to arrest illegal immigrants for trespassing, giving them the option of arrest or crossing the border back home. In contrast, a federal judge This law was blocked on February 29th..

As if the stakes at the border weren't high enough, Mexico's outgoing president Andres Manuel López Obrador, AMLO for short. directly threatened He hinted at U.S. interference in the election, suggesting he would tell Mexicans and other Hispanics in the U.S. diaspora to vote against the Republican Party unless the party favors Mexican cartels. (Related: Jenny Beth Martin: Biden's border policies have real-world implications)

This puts the cost of illegal immigration to Texas at least $4.5 billion annually, of which $2.2 billion goes to Operation Lone Star, about $2 billion goes to public education, and about $500 million goes to prisons and jails. , will be spent on public facilities. assistance. This cost does not include casualties, destroyed fences and gates, or property damage such as lost cattle or crops caused by reckless border smuggling operations to Texans.

The fundamental problem with Biden and Belt and Road’s status quo approach to Mexico is that they treat Mexico as an equal partner operating with honest intentions. Unfortunately, Mexico today is a corrupt amalgamation of government and criminal cartels, and it is impossible to know where one ends and the other begins.That's why Secretary of State Antony Blinken agreed in principle last December. Responding to AMLO's demands It called for the United States to ease sanctions on Venezuela and Cuba, provide $20 billion in additional foreign aid to Latin America, and increase work permits.

Meanwhile, President Trump has taken a strong stance against Mexico, threatening trade unless Mexico agrees to implement the successful Remain in Mexico program and other measures to curb rampant asylum fraud.

The Biden border crisis is likely to be a defining issue in the 2024 election campaign. For now, the only things that can save Biden from defeat are the Mexican cartels and, paradoxically, the state of Texas' efforts to secure a region of its own.

Chuck DeVore is chief national initiatives officer at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. He serves as a member of the California State Legislature and is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Retired Reserve. He is the author of “.The crisis of a family that never unites”

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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