The immigration crisis that the Biden White House has invited through lax or non-existent border enforcement has expanded beyond the administration’s previous talking points about the “root causes” arising in the Northern Triangle (NT) region of Central America.
The NT region is made up of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Illegal immigration from Mexico and the NT region is up almost 75 percent this year. However, Breitbart News reported on August 2 that the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) found the most significant increases in illegal border crossings are from nations in Central Europe, South America, and the Caribbean.
Federal policy requires the Border Patrol to categorize the countries of origin of illegal immigrants from places other than Mexico and the NT region simply as “other.” The migrants from the “other” category are also referred to as “extra-continentals.”
The BPC found that the most significant increases in border arrivals in the last year came from Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Haiti. The growth in arrivals from those countries is increasing substantially faster than from Mexico and the NT region.
In 2020, the Department of Homeland Security issued a threat assessment describing the threat of increased terrorists from the “other” countries blending in with Mexican and NT illegal immigrants.
The Biden administration’s decision to open the southern border has generated incentives for immigrants from all over the world to take advantage of the situation.
Despite these shifting sources of illegal immigrants, White House policy centers around the NT region and ignores extra-continental patterns. Vice President Harris has been in charge of NT policy since March.
Harris got around last week to describe a plan to address what the administration describes as the “root causes” of NT immigration. The causes she told included climate change, sexual orientation discrimination, poverty, and gang violence.
The consequences of President Biden’s open-borders approach to immigration are likely to continue unless the blowback leading into next year’s midterm elections becomes too politically severe or individual states stand up to the administration.
