Immigration Crisis?

Yes,  there is one.  No,  it is not the fault of Presidential administrations of either party.  It is primarily the fault of a dysfunctional Congress not doing its sworn job.  See the figure.

This has been neglected since right after the end of World War 2,  except for one ineffective change that George W. Bush got through Congress about 20 years ago.  The public has become aware over the last 2 decades that there is a problem,  but Congress lies about whose fault it is,  instead of doing something constructive about it.

The guest worker quotas have always been set too low,  since 1945.  Congress sets the maximums for the worker visa quotas.  Administrations may issue less,  but not more. Those visas cannot be tracked effectively,  because Congress never appropriated the money to hire the people to do the tracking job.  Why should anyone be surprised that,  after decades of this mismatch,  there are something like 10 million illegal residents in the US?

Until about 2 decades ago,  the number of guest workers we had to deal with was very much greater than the number of asylum seekers we had to deal with.  Under federal law,  asylum seekers must be granted a hearing before an immigration judge.  The number of these immigration courts and their infrastructure depends upon what Congress funds.  They were barely adequate 2+ decades ago. 

The smugglers of drugs and people were only as numerous as they were 2 decades ago,  because of the illegal guest workers to be smuggled.  Our border patrol was roughly adequate to the task then.  No longer.

Since then,  a large number of failed states in South America,  the Caribbean,  and elsewhere have produced vast numbers of refugees seeking asylum,  far more now,  than we ever saw 20+ years ago!  The US has absolutely no control over the conditions forcing those people to flee.  And under federal law,  they are guaranteed a hearing before an immigration judge;  not entry,  just the hearing.  That law says nothing about how they crossed the border to come apply.  

Administration policies requiring deportations without that hearing are the Executive Branch literally violating federal law instead of enforcing it.  The wait time for an immigration hearing now is a few to several years,  because Congress has not funded an increase in the number of immigration courts to address the vastly increased demand.

Walls and barriers demonstrably do not work nearly as well as claimed.  Even when they do work,  their actual effect is to deny asylum seekers the hearing they are entitled to,  under our laws.  That denial is a violation of our laws.   So are the stay-in-Mexico policies,  and similar stuff.

What we need is a Congress that will update those laws and fund the infrastructure that enables Presidential administrations to enforce them faithfully. 

What we have is a long history of dysfunctional Congresses blaming administrations of the opposite party for the crisis,  just to drum up votes.  Playing politics is so very clearly prioritized way higher than actually doing the jobs they swore to do.  It also shows up in Congress not having passed a proper budget in almost 20 years!  Oath-breakers!

And bear in mind,  your own Congress has been lying egregiously about this immigration crisis (and many other things) to you,  the citizens,   for some decades now.  Both major parties do it,  but one is currently worse than the other about that.  I’ll let you readers guess which one. 

Hint:  the one that wants the border walls everywhere.

There is a “fix” for this,  and it is coming up this very November!  Throw the bastards out!  All of them!    They certainly deserve it for playing hardball politics instead of doing the jobs that they swore to do!  Try somebody new,  it does not matter who. 

You cannot do any worse than what you have now.  But you might do better.

Update 1-12-2024:  It nauseates me to see the House GOP controlled by Trump-cult extremists who freely abuse any lever of power to get what they want,  when they have not the votes,  all the while lying so egregiously about what they are doing.  My article above makes abundantly clear that the immigration crisis is the fault of Congress's dereliction of duty over many decades,  and not the fault of the current President or any of his predecessors.  Yet blaming Biden is the loudest noise being made by the Trump cult extremists dominating the House GOP.