The Sconi

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has recently voiced his concerns regarding the escalating illegal immigration crisis at the Southern border, which is exerting immense pressure on law enforcement, local services, and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). He calls for extraordinary measures to tackle this issue. His remarks follow reports of a substantial migrant caravan advancing towards the U.S.

"The illegal immigration crisis at our southern border is overwhelming CBP, local educators, public safety, and law enforcement," says Johnson. He continues, "This isn't the time for business as usual," emphasizing that "An unprecedented crisis will require unprecedented actions."

According to AP News, a caravan consisting of roughly 6,000 migrants from Central America, Venezuela, and Cuba is making its way through Mexico towards the U.S. border. The caravan was observed leaving Tapachula on Christmas Eve. The southwest border of the U.S. has witnessed daily arrests of up to 10,000 migrants this month alone. This surge in migration led to the temporary halt of cross-border rail traffic in Eagle Pass and El Paso due to migrants riding freight trains. Illegal crossings have exceeded 2 million annually in each of the past two U.S. fiscal years.

Johnson's quote | X

Fox News reports that Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs recently deployed the National Guard with an aim to assist federal officials and reopen the Lukeville port of entry while criticizing federal inaction. Texas Governor Greg Abbott also expanded migrant transportation to 'sanctuary' cities by flying migrants into Chicago and signed an immigration bill enabling law enforcement to arrest illegal immigrants. Moreover, Department of Homeland Security officials informed lawmakers about an estimated 670,000 "gotaways" who managed to evade Border Patrol agents in FY23. Republicans attribute these issues to changes in administration policy and advocate for stricter asylum limits and robust border security measures while the administration seeks additional congressional funding and immigration reform.

In a press release issued by Johnson's office earlier this month, the Senator stated: "The crisis at the southwest border is unlike anything we’ve experienced in American history. The massive flood of illegal migration is an order of magnitude larger than the ‘humanitarian crisis’ President Obama sparked when he abused ‘prosecutorial discretion’ and granted Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants in 2012. In 2019, Obama’s Secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, stated that 1,000 apprehensions per day ‘overwhelm[ed] the system.’ We recently experienced over 12,000 ‘encounters’ in a single day, and it has become common for encounters to exceed 10,000 per day. Unfortunately, President Biden and his Democrat allies in Congress WANT an open border. Biden came into office with the border largely secured, and then immediately reversed all the policies that had successfully stemmed the flow of illegal migrants. The fact that President Biden and congressional Democrats ARE the root cause of the current crisis is a major problem in conducting good-faith negotiations with them."