A few days ago, the authorities of El Paso, Texas, reported that more than a thousand migrants crossed the border in one night, making it the largest single group of illegal immigrants ever to make their way into the US through the southern border. Fox News also reported that the migrants—predominantly from Central America—were transported to the border from Mexico City in nearly twenty buses, and then released at NGO centres in Ciudad Juárez, on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. The group then crossed the river on foot to be apprehended by the Border Control officers, who can no longer hold such masses in custody; hundreds are simply released or transported to sanctuary cities.

The Floodgate to Be Opened

President Trump’s hard stance on immigration did not only encompass the promise of a (still unfinished) border wall, of course. One of his major immigration policy decisions was a public health order prompted by the pandemic, the so-called Title 42. Under the executive order, a large portion of the illegal migrants detained by border patrols could be easily expelled as posing a public health risk, considering that those entering illegally were unable to show proof of vaccination. Nearly a million migrants were deported under Title 42, around half of those who arrived in the US in this period. But the order is about the expire in less than a week, and authorities expect that it will instantly raise the number of illegal border crossings to somewhere between fourteen to eighteen thousand a day.

Needless to say, the numbers were already bad even with Title 42 in place, mostly because of the Biden administration’s disastrous immigration policies. For instance, Biden halted the construction of the border wall, ended all travel bans, restarted green card processing and championed a comprehensive immigration reform in Congress that would provide undocumented immigrants with a clear path to citizenship. In other words, Biden made illegally entering the US more appealing than ever before in recent history.

According to the latest statistics published by the US Department of Border Security, the number of illegal migrants entering the US every year has been growing almost exponentially since Biden took office. In the 2022 fiscal year, for instance, more than 2.76 million illegal crossings were reported (and that is only the number of people who are detained by border patrols). Now, compared to the 640 thousand crossings in 2020—the last year of the Trump administration—that is a 327 per cent (!) increase in just two years.

Border Control is Now a Bipartisan Issue

When I say most Americans are fed up with the migrant situation at the southern border, I actually mean it. Despite the fact that the leftist claim perpetuated by both traditional and social media portrays Democrat voters as overwhelmingly supporting loose border control policies that all but invite illegal immigrants into the country, actual data suggests otherwise. An NPR poll conducted in August revealed that the majority (53 per cent) of Americans describe the situation at the border as an ‘invasion’. This number includes 73 per cent of Republicans, 41 per cent of Democrats and 47 per cent of unaffiliated voters. In simple terms, this means that under the Biden administration, tighter border control has gone from being an almost solely conservative talking point to being a bipartisan issue. Yet, Biden seems to be turning his back on voters.

It is unsurprising, therefore, that when footage showing the one-thousand-strong migrant group crossing the river emerged on Twitter, a lot of users expressed their anger at the federal government’s apparent inability or unwillingness to stop the illegal flow of people into the country. One user, in particular, posed the most obvious question of all, asking how difficult would it be to construct a simple fence, since there is absolutely no physical barrier to stop migrants at this section of the US–Mexican border—save the Rio Grande, but it is not much of an obstacle, as the video demonstrates.

Just a Simple Fence

To answer that question briefly, yes, physical barriers work miraculously against mass immigration. Also, installing a simple but effective barbed wire fence is surprisingly easy. We have Hungary’s example to show for results.

At the height of the migrant crisis in 2015–2016, Hungary registered six to eight thousand illegal crossing attempts a day at its southern border. After the building of a fence on the entire length of the Hungarian-Serbian border, however, this number dropped to virtually zero overnight.

Of course, saying that these results are due exclusively to the fence is absurd. There is one more element to stopping illegal migration into Hungary, one that’s perhaps even more important. And that is political will. The Hungarian government listened to the people, simple as that, and did what was expected of it despite the international backlash at the time. The border wall remains in place to this date and still enjoys a high level of public support—just as the Orbán government does. I wonder if the same is true about Biden.

It appears that importing new Democrat voters at the taxpayers’ expense is more profitable in the short run than listening to the actual citizens’ wishes. I’m not so sure about the long-term implications—history will judge those who led the transformation of America. The question is whether the future assessment of what is happening in the United States will be written in English or Spanish, but I guess we’ll see that soon enough.