Date: July 10, 2023
Host: Jim Schneider
Guest: Mark Krikorian
MP3 | Order
Mark Krikorian is a nationally recognized expert on immigration issues serving as the Executive Director of Center for Immigration Studies. They are an independent, non-partisan research organization examining and critiquing the impact of immigration on the United States. He has testified numerous times before congress and has published articles in many outlets.
Mark last appeared on Crosstalk in May, just before Title 42 was lifted. The premise at the time was the idea that the border crisis would worsen. Statistically speaking, the numbers haven’t gone way up as some expected, but the reason for that is due to what the Biden administration has done via a new system.
Mark described how a smartphone app was developed under the Trump administration called CBP One, which stands for Customs and Border Protections. It was invented to schedule when a bus full of people were coming or for when a truck would be arriving. This would help make certain there weren’t a lot of people backed up at the border during COVID.
The problem is that the Biden administration is using the app as a tool for illegal immigrants to schedule their illegal immigration into the U.S. So instead of coming between the legal crossing points (ports of entry) where the Border Patrol is and turning themselves in and claiming asylum (or whatever they’ve been coached to say), the administration is telling illegals not to do that. Instead, they want illegals to schedule their arrival at a legal port of entry. Then they can make their asylum claim and they’ll be let go.
This funneling of illegal immigrants makes it appear that illegal immigration numbers are down because those who check-in this way aren’t part of Border Patrol statistics. In the end it’s still illegal immigration. It only looks legal because the Biden administration is actively facilitating the problem rather than taking people into custody after they’ve crossed the border illegally. As Mark noted, the Biden administration is essentially telling illegals not to break the law. They’ll do it for them.
The CBP One scheduling app isn’t what’s illegal. The problem is that if people follow this procedure, the law requires that those who have no documented right to be here be held in detention until their case is resolved and the Biden administration is simply letting them go.
Mark noted that the number of people the Biden administration has taken into custody and released into our nation currently stands at 2.5 million. So all that’s occurred since Title 42 is this administration has been trying to change the way illegals come in rather than actually reducing their flow into the U.S.
This is the opening salvo on this edition of Crosstalk that contains much more on the immigration issue, including responses from listeners nationwide.
More Information
