Eileen Sullivan and Miriam Jordan of the New York Times teamed up to write an article "Illegal Border Crossings, Driven by Pandemic and Natural Disasters, Soar to Record High," that states the reasons for the record surge at the southern border can be blamed on the ongoing pandemic and natural disasters, such as hurricanes. While these may be some of the factors that led to these massive increases, they are definitely not the only ones.
The main drivers are not a mystery. Sure, some technology and an increase in border patrol agents over the last decade has helped increase the number of apprehensions, but in the overall picture it is not enough to offset the increased number of people crossing the southern border daily.
The New York Times opened comments (and promptly closed after 640 comments) to readers who mostly disagreed with Sullivan and Jordan, voicing their displeasure of the Biden Administration's handling of the southern border crisis. Here are some of the top Reader Picks:
- "As a legal immigrant, I find this situation totally unacceptable. The US is a country of immigrants, yes; but it is not a country of lawlessness. A state must control its borders: this is the definition of a state. People with PhDs languish in immigration limbo for decades, and you want to let anybody who crosses the border, with no vetting? How do you know there are no gang members, drug dealers, or terrorists among this crowd? Who are those "unaccompanied children" and what kind of parent sends them on this dangerous journey? If your country is in [sic] such bad shape, why don't you fight for its future instead of running away? I am in favor of accepting as many Afghan refugees as possible because the US has taken responsibility for this country by invading it, and because it is ruled by a totalitarian regime. But poverty is not a reason for getting a green card, or the population of the US would have to total at least six billion." - Mor, California
- "The US is fast [sic] becoming the safety net for Latin America and beyond. Asylum seeking is no longer for political or religious persecution, it's a means to improve your social and economic standing if you were born south of the border. Rather than going to college after high-school or starting [sic] a business in your country, you just get a ticket to Mexico and cross the southern US border.
It's also becoming a self-perpetuating process, the more illegals cross the border, the further the word spreads that illegal migration is the way to come here and that's before the child-tax credit and free day care become the law of the land.
At one point, people need to realize that a tax-payer [sic] supported entitlement society can't coexist with open borders.." - Citizen Kane, Boston, MA
(Note: The NYT's own Paul Krugman said very much the same thing in 2010: "...open immigration can't coexist with a strong social safety net; if you're going to assure health care and a decent income to everyone, you can't make that offer global.") - "This is one issue where I just can't support the Democratic stance. Uncontrolled legal immigration is utterly unsustainable. Every other country on this planet seems to agree on that point, but in this one it's apparently a neo-fascist idea.
No, immigration in 2021 is not the same thing as immigration in the 18th or 19th centuries. No, exploiting cheap labor it Is not the morally correct position. No, the Emma Lazarus poem on the Statue of Liberty has nothing to do with contemporary immigration policy.
For the love of God, Democrats, please think rationally about this." - U.N. Owen, New York City - "We need to secure our borders plain and simple. We cannot save the world. We should provide aid to nations in need but we cannot have an open border. It is challenging enough to provide for the people that are already here." - Dave, New Jersey
- "If the US does not develop a clear policy to control the huge influx of immigrants from Mexico, the whole third world countries will continue to storm our southern borders." - Kenell Touryan, Colorado
- "Climate change is not what is driving this large-scale migration. Nor are most of these migrants at-risk political refugees.
The vast majority are economic refugees. Over the long haul they may eventually become net contributors to our society. But in the interim, they will impose very large costs on the country (housing costs, educational costs, medical costs, societal dislocation)." - Jasper - "It's getting to the point where the low-wage illegal economic migrants who have been here a few years, and who are now just starting to get a leg up, find themselves in competition with the illegal economic migrants who are flooding the border. You can't make this stuff up. Will either party ever mandate e-verify? I doubt it." - Spanky, Virginia
- "The root cause of migration crises is simply too many people. I do not understand why the subject of overpopulation seems to have become taboo. It's [sic] common sense, that form of intelligence that is so uncommon." - Robert L. Briggs, Sarasota, Florida
There are many more comments from readers available to read here.
CHRIS JOHNSON is a content writer for the Media Standards Project for NumbersUSA
