Thursday, March 25, 2021

The Contrived Border Crisis


We *may* have a border crisis in the future, but it's sure as hell not now.

But don't take my word for it.  Just a week after The Washington Post got hosed for hyping the "Biden border surge," they report that it was, in fact, all bullshit.


We looked at data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection to see whether there’s a “crisis” — or even a “surge,” as many news outlets have characterized it. We analyzed monthly CBP data from 2012 to now and found no crisis or surge that can be attributed to Biden administration policies. Rather, the current increase in apprehensions fits a predictable pattern of seasonal changes in undocumented immigration combined with a backlog of demand because of 2020’s coronavirus border closure...

... the CBP has recorded a 28 percent increase in migrants apprehended from January to February 2021, from 78,442 to 100,441. News outlets, pundits and politicians have been calling this a “surge” and a “crisis.” ... the CBP’s numbers reveal that undocumented immigration is seasonal, shifting upward this time of year. During fiscal year 2019, under the Trump administration, total apprehensions increased 31 percent during the same period, a bigger jump than we’re seeing now. We’re comparing fiscal year 2021 to 2019 because the pandemic changed the pattern in 2020. In 2018, the increase is about 25 percent from February to March — somewhat smaller but still pronounced.

Pierce writes:

The immigration problem is just that...a problem, a doggedly persistent issue for every president going on 40 years now. For the four years of the previous administration*, we tried outright cruelty and that didn't solve anything. So now we have a brand-new administration trying to get a handle on it while facing amped-up impatience and ginned-up outrage....  Not everything is a crisis. Sometimes, American politics looks like a hospital with nothing but a chronic ward.

No shit.

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