The Biden Administration and the Liberal Media Won't Stop Lying About the Border. Here's the Truth | Opinion

The border crisis that has turned every American city into a border town is about to get worse—a lot worse. The Biden administration is putting to rest Title 42, the only effective means Border Patrol agents have had at their disposal to quickly expel people who cross into our country illegally.

You wouldn't know it to hear the rhetoric coming out of the White House or the liberal mainstream media, which apparently sees its job not to hold President Biden to account but to defend him and hide the reality of the border from the American people.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has repeatedly said that the border is not open over the past several months, providing no evidence to back his claims in any of the interviews, hearings or other forums he's used that I've seen. He can't provide any evidence for the claim, because there isn't any. We have seen record numbers of illegal border crossings since this administration took office.

Yet despite the shameful lies, Mayorkas' political rhetoric effectively becomes the truth because the mainstream media fails to fact check or press him on his statements. As a result, the American people are successfully deceived.

It's not just Mayorkas. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre recently said that illegal border crossings have come down by 90 percent due to President Biden's leadership. She offered no evidence and again, the mainstream media failed to fact check her.

Instead of telling the truth about the border or demanding accountability from the administration over its failed policies, the liberal media runs articles with headlines like "As Biden Takes Control of the Border with the end of Title 42, Congress is Absent on Immigration Reform" or "Targeting Mayorkas, G.O.P. Takes Its Immigration Message to the Border" or "U.S. Policies Like Title 42 Make Migrants More Vulnerable to Smugglers."

And the American public is deceived again and again.

I'm not a hypocrite. I believe in honest discussion. So unlike the White House and the mainstream media, let me give you some actual evidence so you can make up your own mind about the truth, and about whether Biden is "taking control of the border," whether Mayorkas is being unfairly "targeted by the GOP" and whether Title 42 is making "migrants more vulnerable," as the media would have you believe.

Here are the facts: During the Obama and Trump administrations, the U.S. Border Patrol's daily average was 1,217 arrests of illegal border crossers and 339 known got-aways—illegal border crossers who were able to evade arrest. Under President Biden, the number of illegal border crossers has skyrocketed to a daily average of 5,764 arrests and 1,873 known got-aways.

And while those numbers alone prove that Mayorkas is lying when he says we don't have an open border, a little more context makes this even starker.

Here is that context: President Biden urged judges to use prosecutorial discretion that resulted in the release of a majority of illegal border crossers into the U.S., where Presidents Trump and Obama removed most people who crossed the border illegally.

President Biden's policies have allowed the cartels to convince more vulnerable women and children to place themselves into the cartels' hands by promising they will be released into the U.S.—meaning it's not the "root causes" of illegal migration that changed from President Obama's time in office to President Biden's, but the administration's approach.

The two main claims of asylum—gang violence and political unrest—haven't changed, either. The change has been President Biden's policies. President Biden has officially deported fewer people than any previous president at the same time in their presidency over my 25-year career as a Border Patrol agent. And he's done this even though there have been many, many more illegal border crossers than at any point in my career.

So now that you have the facts, lets look at the rhetoric.

Secretary Mayorkas says the border is not open. The facts clearly say it is. A majority of people are released into the U.S. after crossing the border illegally and more than 1,800 people are able to evade arrest each day. That qualifies as an open border, especially compared to previous administrations.

Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre says illegal immigration has come down by 90 percent. If you measure it against past administrations, this statement is ridiculous. If you measure the month of March to this administration's already astronomically high watermark, it's true, but just in the past 10 days, those numbers have surged past all previous highs.

In short, the Press Secretary's statement is purposefully misleading at best, and an outright lie at worst.

The mainstream media's portrayal of this crisis is laughable and insulting, both to hardworking Border Patrol agents and honest American citizens. The media routinely blames Congress for the border crisis instead of President Biden, something that's obviously a lie when you compare this administration to the previous one.

During the first two years of the Trump Administration, Congress refused to address the issue of border security through legislation. While President Trump was trying to work with Congress, illegal immigration surged to numbers not seen since the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations.

Yet instead of blaming the issue on Congress, President Trump used executive authority to take control of our border. Not only did President Trump address the issue, he actually fixed it. Illegal immigration plummeted to 45-year lows under his watch.

While it would be nice to have Congress address the matter, a president does not need to wait on them to use the authority granted by our Constitution in order to fix problems.

President Biden could use the same authority to address the issue, and he doesn't need to recreate the wheel. A road map has already been given to him by Trump.

The mainstream media is very aware of his constitutional authority, but they continuously give him a pass.

The proper adherence to and enforcement of the rule of law is what makes us free. Laws do not restrict our ability to thrive, they enhance it. Without the rule of law we become no better than the countries most of the people that cross our borders illegally are fleeing. But we will never have proper adherence to or enforcement of the rule of law when an administration is allowed to misrepresent the truth and the mainstream media fails to hold it to account.

Facts matter. Actions matter. Until we have an honest conversation nothing will change. Our border will remain in chaos. And it will continue to get worse while the American people pay the price.

Brandon Judd is the president of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) which represents all rank-and-file Border Patrol agents nationwide.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.