Nothing About Open Borders is “Compassionate”

One of the main arguments from open borders advocates is that open border policies “care for the person,” citing immigration enforcement as being inhumane. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only do President Biden’s policies endanger migrants by incentivizing illegal crossings, but they also enrich cartels that exploit and thrive off of Central American migrants.

The policies being touted by the Biden administration have created a perfect storm, drawing unprecedented numbers of migrants to our border and providing a plethora of opportunities for cartels to expand their criminal organizations. Additionally, with thousands of migrants crossing every day, and the surge of unaccompanied minors at our border, Border Patrol resources are stretched thin and the border itself is undermined.

Mexico’s Gulf Cartel is one of the many criminal organizations seeking to cash in on vulnerable migrants who are hoping to enter the U.S. under Biden’s lack of immigration enforcement. Authorities in the Mexican border city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas found 37 Central American migrants, including 7 minors, who had been kidnapped and held for 15 days while the Gulf Cartel extorted their families for ransom. Once rescued, the migrants were turned over to Mexico’s National Migration Institute to process their deportations.

The journey across the border is dangerous. High temperatures, rough terrain, dehydration and threat of suffering various injuries or illness (including an enhanced risk of contracting COVID-19) all contribute to a perilous trek. In addition, coyotes often endanger and abandon migrants, leaving them to die. As if that wasn’t bad enough, migrants, especially women and children, face various forms of abuse such as rape and assault not only by the smugglers but also at the hands of fellow migrants. Approximately 8 in 10 women and children are sexually assaulted on their journey to and across our border.

To cartels and smugglers, migrants are nothing but cargo, a means to make money. No migrant begins the journey without first paying up. As a result, they care little whether migrants make it safely across the border. When push comes to shove, they will not hesitate to sacrifice their cargo, human lives, to save themselves.

On March 16, smugglers threw a baby girl into the Rio Grande and capsized rafts in an effort to distract law enforcement so the smugglers could escape. One of the women had paid the smugglers $3,500 to take her over the border after a human trafficker broke her leg while assaulting her in Mexico.

It is hard to argue that incentivizing illegal crossings is compassionate, especially when it places so many migrants in harm’s way, not to mention how it disadvantages and delays those who are trying to immigrate to the United States the right way: legally.