America's Talking - At Least 1.6 Million Illegal Border Crossers From Countries of Concern Under Biden

Episode Date: October 26, 2024

Of the record 14 million illegal border crossers reported under the Biden-Harris administration, more than 1.62 million are from four Countries of Particular Concern (CPC): China, Cuba, Nicaragua and Russia. The U.S. State Department has designated CPCs for their policies of “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom,” which includes “torture, prolonged detention without charges, forced disappearance, or other flagrant denial of life, liberty, or security of persons.” U.S. designated CPCs include Burma, the People’s Republic of China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. The CPCs of Cuba, North Korea, and Iran are also designated State Sponsors of Terrorism (SST). Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to America and Focus, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulb, chief content officer at Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire service. With the federal government's 2024 fiscal year ending September 30th, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol this week released its overall totals for illegal border crossings for the last fiscal year. Nearly 3 million foreign nationals illegally entered or attempted entry into the U.S. in fiscal 2024. That is the second- highest reported number under the Biden-Harris administration, but also the second highest in U.S. history, down only slightly from the 3.2 million foreign nationals reported illegally entering the country in fiscal 2023. While the Biden-Harris administration has tried to tout steps they took over the summer to reduce illegal border crossings, it's clear from the federal data that the crisis is, in fact, still raging. Joining me to discuss this today is Casey Harper. Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief at the Center Square. Casey, what do you make of those numbers?

I mean, they tell us what we've already known is there is a crisis at the southern border. Millions of illegal immigrants pouring in, going to cities all around the country, not just border states, which is a common misconception that these millions of people are just piling up in Texas. They're going everywhere. They're going to Chicago. They're going to New York. They're going to cities all around the country, some of which have reported essentially being overwhelmed by the need. because so many people come in totally destitute, hardly any money to their name, looking for work,

you know, so many young men as well. So it's definitely a crisis. It's a crisis for these local governments that are trying to deal with the need and trying to find the money to pay for all the services that are needed and taking it from other parts of the local government. It's sort of a national security crisis, because as we've discussed on the show before, there are sprinkled in throughout these migrants, those who are connected or known on the known terror watch list, right, and have terror connection ties, of course, any nefarious group overseas who wanted to slip somebody in, they could do it to the very poorest southern border. So it's a national security concern. And it's a political crisis for Vice President Kamala Harris, who very much,

which is seen as the one responsible for this issue. She was helping handle the immigration issue for President Joe Biden is now running for re-election and facing this question. If you can really solve the border crisis, why haven't you done it already? Yeah. So the Center Square has reported when you include gotaway data, which the Center Square exclusively receives from Border Patrol agents at the southern border. Godaways are those who illegally enter the country and evade being caught, being apprehended, because there aren't Border Patrol agents available to get them. They get this data from video surveillance, from drones, and in other ways.

When you add Godaways into the – and Godaways are not reported by the federal government. We get that exclusively from Border Patrol sources. when you add the gotaway data with the official data from Customs and Border Patrol, more than 14 million people have illegally entered the country since Biden and Harris first took office, that's alarming in and of itself. But what's more alarming, as you mentioned, is where these people are coming from and who they are. Many of them are unvetted. But we reported this week at the CenterSquare.com that of those 14 million illegal border crossers,

More than 1.62 million are from four countries that the federal government identifies as countries of particular concern, namely China, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Russia. 1.62 million. And we don't know where many of them are or what they're up to. FBI director Christopher Ray has testified this year before Congress a number of times about the heightened terrorist threats to Americans. We've got an election, of course, just about 10 days away, not being alarmist, not trying to be alarmist or whatever. But the fact is, this is a national security issue. It is a national security issue. And just circling back to the political issue, it's kind of a demographic political question as well. We've seen over the years kind of seismic shifts demographically in certain states like California, for instance.

And those areas that have seen these demographic shifts have become deeply blue, deeply Democrat. Now, what's interesting actually is Trump is beating, you know, former President Donald Trump is beating Harris with Hispanics, for instance. And he's eroding her lead with black Americans. So she definitely still has a sizable, a significant majority with black voters. But it's interesting just to consider that some of the established. what was thought of just common wisdom about these demographic changes and what I mean politically has been shaken up a little bit by Trump who's been able to win over Hispanic voters. Now, with that being said, you know, one of the big questions that you see Dan come up so much is

what election integrity with all these illegal immigrants are people going to be voting. I think there's a big concern that illegal immigrants or are somehow going to be able to be casting ballots and influencing these elections. And actually, now, they're pretty much across the nation. It's illegal to vote if you're an illegal immigrant. But there's sort of ways that Democrat officials, if they want to, can try to get around that. Now, with all that being said, just on this question of immigration, I thought it was really interesting, Dan. I wrote about a poll this week that came out from Gallup, which found that, you know, despite all the divide Republican versus Democrat about, you know, voter ID, for instance, to vote.

and if that's wrong or even some Democrats say it's racist or requiring proof of citizenship to vote. The polling shows that the whopping majority of Americans and even Democrats support it. So just quickly, 86% of Americans support requiring a photo ID to vote. And another 83% of Americans support requiring people who are registering to vote for the first time to provide proof of citizenship. So this immigration issue touches a lot of things. It touches on the fentanyl issue. It touches on, you know, state and local budgets. And it touches on this election integrity just two weeks out from this election.

And I just found it really interesting that so many Americans, even the majority of Democrats, support these voter ID restrictions and even proof of citizenship to vote. That is interesting information there, Casey, regardless who wins the presidential on November 5th. the next president of the United States is going to have a huge issue dealing with the ongoing border crisis. Thank you for joining us today, Casey. Listeners can keep up with this story and more at thecenter square.com.