Under President Donald Trump, the country saw illegal immigration fall and border security increase by building the wall and implementing policies that would deter immigrants from crossing illegally. 

However, when President Joe Biden was elected into office, he soon reversed Trump’s policies and halted the building of the border wall that aimed to ensure border security. 

Now, illegal immigration on the southern border is pouring through, with no signs of stopping.

“United States Border Patrol had lost operational control of our southern border. They can’t contain what they have now,” former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Tom Homan said in a Fox News interview. “Under President Trump, we had the most secure border in my lifetime, and President Biden came into office and destroyed it, which is causing the crime, the murders, the overdose deaths, the drug trafficking, the trafficking of women and children.” 

In late May 2022, Isnardo Garcia-Amado (who is on the terrorist watch list) was allowed into the U.S. It took 13 days for ICE to obtain authorization to rearrest him.

On the same day, the FBI discovered a conspiracy by an Iraqi man who lived in Ohio and planned to recruit and sneak alien assassins into the U.S. through the U.S.-Mexico border. Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab was accused of being linked to ISIS operatives who planned on assassinating former President George W. Bush. Shihab believed that the former president was responsible for the breakdown of the country and the killing of many Iraqis following the 2003 military invasion. 

Terrorist threats aren’t the only issues caused by the porous border. Texas Scorecard highlighted the story of a rancher named Cole Hill, who has been forced to deal with the illegal immigration influx on his ranch. According to Hill, the migrants would come through his property and damage fences and water lines, with Hill having to resort to chasing illegal immigrants off of his property. 

“I basically was just running around, fixing fences and chasing illegals out of houses, fixing water lines and water troughs where they come through and just take a rock and smash the pipe that comes up out of the ground or just grab it and snap it off to fill up their water jugs,” Hill said. 

Data from the Migration Policy Institute shows an estimated 1,739,000 illegal immigrants reside in the state of Texas, though the number could be far greater.

Another report released by the Texas Department of Public Safety says that “over 371,000 criminal aliens have been booked into local Texas jails between June 1, 2011, and May 31, 2022, of which 255,000 were classified as illegal aliens by DHS.” The report adds that “between June 1, 2011, and May 31, 2022, these 255,000 illegal aliens were charged with more than 424,000 criminal offenses.” 

According to the DHS, these arrests included more than 700 homicide charges, more than 51,000 assault charges, and about 52,000 drug charges. 

The crime rates aren’t the only problem; the amount of money that Texas taxpayers spend for illegal immigrants to call Texas home averages approximately $850 million a year. 

According to Attorney General Ken Paxton, Texans pay an average of about $152 million a year to house illegal aliens, between $62 million and $90 million to include illegals in Texas’ emergency Medicaid program, and between $579 million and $717 million for hospitals to provide uncompensated medical care. 

With our border security being compromised and Texans’ taxpayer dollars being used to support illegal aliens, the issue is expected to be a major topic of discussion among delegates at next week’s Republican Party of Texas Convention in Houston.

Emily Medeiros

Emily graduated from the University of Oklahoma majoring in Journalism. She is excited to use her research and writing skills to report on important issues around Texas.

RELATED POSTS