The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | December 19th, 2023: US Border Crisis Escalates & Nations Unite To Protect The Red Sea

Episode Date: December 19, 2023

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:     The U.S. border crisis is spiraling further out of hand as a fresh migrant surge stretches federal resources to the breaking point. We’ll look at the deteriorating situation and how border state governors are taking matters into their own hands. In the wake of escalating attacks by Houthi militants, the U.S. has announced the formation of a 10-nation coalition to patrol the Red Sea in an effort to bring stability to one of the world's most critical commercial routes. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin.     Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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You talking to me? Kayak, got that right. It's Tuesday, December 19th. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. The U.S. border crisis is spiraling further out of hand as a fresh migrant surge stretches federal resources to the breaking point. We'll look at the deteriorating situation and how border state governors are taking matters into their own hands. Also, in the wake of escalating attacks by Iranian-backed Houthi militants,

The U.S. has announced the formation of a 10-nation coalition to patrol the Red Sea in an effort to bring stability to one of the world's most critical commercial routes. But first, our afternoon spotlight. We begin today on the U.S. border, where officials are grappling with another surge of migrant crossings in what has already been a record-breaking year. Officials with U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Sunday that they had closed two international railings. railway crossing bridges in Eagle Pass in El Paso along the Texas border with Mexico, after noting an increase in migrant smuggling by train. Now, these closures are just the latest enacted by CBP agents in an attempt to stem the flood of migrants.

You may recall that in late November, the CBP closed a vehicle crossing at Eagle Pass in Texas, a port of entry in Lukeville, Arizona, and a pedestrian crossing in San Diego to try to deal with the surge. In Tucson, Arizona alone, border agents have arrested a staggering 142,000 migrants since the start of the budget year on October 1st, nearly tripling the number of arrests over the same period last year. That's according to a report by Wall Street Journal. Now, CBP agents across the U.S. border are now reporting anywhere from 7,000 to 10,000 arrests a day. The situation is particularly bad in Arizona and California, where migrants are increasingly finding sparsely populated areas along the border in order to avoid CBP patrols. The San Diego sector is experiencing a 20-year high

in migrant crossings, which totaled more than 230,000 for the 2023 fiscal year that ended on September 30th. Now, the failure to act at the federal level has spurred border state governors, both Republican and Democrat to take matters into their own hands. In an unprecedented move that will likely spark legal challenges, Texas Governor Greg Abbott enacted a law on Monday that will allow Texas state law enforcement to arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the border. This power has until now been restricted to federal agents. The law, which will go into effect in March of this coming year,

will make illegal entry or re-entry into Texas a state crime subject to the jurisdiction of local law enforcement. The protocol calls for Texas magistrate judges to order any migrants swept up by local police to return to Mexico or face anywhere from 180 days to 20 years in prison. Governor Abbott issued a strong rebuke of the Biden administration's border policies at a press conference on Monday saying, quote, Biden's deliberate inaction has left Texas defend for itself, end quote. Now, similarly, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, and she's a Democrat, signed an executive order on Friday to deploy the National Guard to Southern Arizona to assist the agents at the border. Governor Hobbs said she is, quote, taking action where the federal government won't, adding that

the Biden administration has, quote, refused to deliver desperately needed resources to Arizona's border. Troy Miller, the CBP's acting commissioner, well, he echoed the frustration of the governors in remarks to the Wall Street Journal on Monday and called on Congress to approve more resources to deal with the crisis. Unfortunately, for Miller and the CBP, he'll probably have to wait well into the new year before Congress takes any action. There were some hopes that Congress would pass at least some border reforms this week as part of a compromise between the United States. Democrats and Republicans regarding aid to Ukraine. There's a word you don't hear very often anymore in D.C. compromise. Now, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer revealed on Monday, however, that no

substantive progress has been made. Despite a weekend of intense negotiations, as they described them, he signaled that the talks would drag on into the new year. All told, some 2.4 million migrant apprehensions occurred along the U.S. border during the 2023 fiscal year. And yes, that's an all-time high. Now, as has been reported throughout the past many months, this is no longer just a border state problem. While Texas, Arizona, and California in particular continue to bear the brunt of the influx, cities across America, many of them, led by Democrat mayors and city councils, are now seeing what it means to be a border state and have to allocate massive resources

to handle the vast numbers of persons claiming asylum or entering illegally. New York City, Chicago, and numerous other sanctuary cities around the country are now scrambling to find sufficient resources to house, feed, care for, and educate the tens of thousands being dispersed into the country once they cross the southern border.

The reality is, The current numbers are unsustainable. Now, we've heard that from Democrat mayors who'd spent years self-righteously patting themselves on the back for declaring themselves sanctuary cities without having to actually provide sanctuary. Well, now that tens of thousands are taking them up on the offer, well, they're having to pay the bill, and they're realizing that their city budgets aren't up to the task. So they turn to the federal government for assistance. and, once again, U.S. taxpayers end up paying the price for ineffective or incompetent administration policies.

We've mentioned it here before on the PDB. Every nation worries about and secures its own borders. As an example, try crossing into Mexico illegally and asking them for health care housing and residency. Now, the U.S. could both secure its borders and improve its immigration policies. those things are not mutually exclusive. But it would take politicians who are willing to compromise and also capable of looking past their next election cycle. And those things, well, they do appear to be mutually exclusive.

All right, coming up after the break, in the wake of escalating attacks by Houthi militants, the U.S. has announced the formation of a 10-nation coalition to patrol the Red Sea in an effort to bring stability, to that critical shipping route. I'll be right back. Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin. Continuing our coverage of the crisis in the Red Sea

and the escalating attacks by Iranian-backed Houthi militants on commercial shipping vessels, a significant development has taken place. The U.S. has announced the formation of a 10-nation coalition to counter the Houthi missile and drone attacks that have disrupted maritime traffic. The operation, named Operation, Prosperity Guardian. I'm not sure who comes up with these names, and frankly, they probably should try

harder. It's a concerted effort to bring stability to one of the world's most critical commercial routes. The coalition includes the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles, Spain, and the U.S. Now, each member of this coalition will contribute in distinct ways. For example, some countries will engage in joint patrols, while others will offer intelligence support, focusing on the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Interestingly, several other nations have agreed to participate in Operation Prosperity Guardian, choosing, though, to remain anonymous in their involvement. This new initiative will bolster the efforts of an existing U.S. and Egyptian-led force already operating in the region. And in a separate move, the U.S.

has urged the United Nations Security Council to act against these relations. relentless attacks. And frankly, it's charming that the Biden administration thinks the UN Security Council is capable of any meaningful action. It's charming or delusional, whichever. In response to this development, the Houthi militants remain defiant. A senior Houthi official declared that their military operations would persist regardless of international pressures. Talking to X, a senior Houthi official wrote, quote, Even if America succeeds in mobilizing the entire world, our military operations will not stop,

no matter the sacrifices it costs us. He went on to warn of unprecedented military responses to any aggression. And the Houthi official added, Hey, we don't make the rules. We'll stop when our Iranian puppet masters tell us to stop, and not a moment before. If you're keeping score at home, yes, I made up that last little quote. To date, the U.S. has not launched retaliatory strikes against the Houthi militants in Yemen,

nor targeted their weapon stockpiles or missile batteries. This restraint comes amidst warnings from Iran's defense minister, who cautioned that any multinational task force in the Red Sea could encounter, quote, extraordinary problems. Apparently, the Iranian regime has a short memory and doesn't recall that back in the 80s, when the same Iranian regime similarly attacked and, disrupted shipping, primarily oil tankers, the U.S. destroyed nearly half of Iran's navy. In recent weeks, the frequency and intensity of Houthi attacks have escalated alarmingly. Militants have attacked or seized commercial ships 12 times in the last four weeks,

currently holding 25 crew members of the ship galaxy leader hostage in Yemen. Now, Austin's announcement comes as major shipping lines and oil transporters continue to suspend shipping through the Red Sea until concerns over the Houthi attacks are addressed, and by Houthi attacks, I mean Iranian-directed Houthi attacks. As of right now, 11 companies have paused shipping via the Red Sea, including Denmark's Maersk, Germany's Hapag Lloyd, and, most recently, oil giant BP. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Tuesday, 19 December. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at the first T.E.B. I'm Mike Baker.

I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool. Not loving your AT&T or T-Mobile bill. Yeah, we've been hearing that a lot. Good news. Bring your AT&T or T-Mobile bill to Verizon and we'll give you a better deal. So get away from that unfortunate phone bill and get to Verizon. Run, ride, canoe. Whatever it takes, we'll be here. Bring your AT&T or T-Mobile bill to a Verizon store today and we'll give you a better deal on the best network.

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