Biden open borders?

ChapelHillSooner

ChapelHillSooner

Honored Member
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So, I am curious where this talk about open borders during the Biden administration came from. Is there any truth to this?

Here are some statistics:

US border patrol enforcement actions per year:

2017 - 310,531
2018 - 404,142
2019 - 859,501
2020 - 405,036
2021 - 1,662,167
2022 - 2,214,652
2023 - 2,063,692
2024 - 1,577,319
2025 - 229,746

In no way does that indicate an open border. That is not even close to being true.

I don't know if asylum seekers who showed up to checkpoints are in these numbers. I understand the thought that we were too lenient (not the right word but the right one isn't coming to me) on asylum seekers which may have contributed to a rise in them.

I also recognize that these numbers are a double edged sword. The belief that the borders were open likely contributed to the surge from 2020 to 2021. I will put some blame on Biden for that. I thought he was making a big mistake during the campaign of 2020 when he didn't limit his immigration focus on the abuses from Trump (children in cages) and the impracticality and uselessness of the wall.

But the idea that we had open borders seems pure fantasy created by the right.
 
I suspect that talk come from the recent claim that Trump has "closed" the border. Does that mean he has closed the border to Asylum Seekers? In other words, he sends them back?
 
ChapelHillSooner said:
So, I am curious where this talk about open borders during the Biden administration came from. Is there any truth to this?

Here are some statistics:

US border patrol enforcement actions per year:

2017 - 310,531
2018 - 404,142
2019 - 859,501
2020 - 405,036
2021 - 1,662,167
2022 - 2,214,652
2023 - 2,063,692
2024 - 1,577,319
2025 - 229,746

In no way does that indicate an open border. That is not even close to being true.

I don't know if asylum seekers who showed up to checkpoints are in these numbers. I understand the thought that we were too lenient (not the right word but the right one isn't coming to me) on asylum seekers which may have contributed to a rise in them.

I also recognize that these numbers are a double edged sword. The belief that the borders were open likely contributed to the surge from 2020 to 2021. I will put some blame on Biden for that. I thought he was making a big mistake during the campaign of 2020 when he didn't limit his immigration focus on the abuses from Trump (children in cages) and the impracticality and uselessness of the wall.

But the idea that we had open borders seems pure fantasy created by the right.
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Apply some nuance to the term open border. Look at the numbers under biden and so far under trump.
 
There were no "open" borders under Biden. I think a lot of it was a combination of ending Title 42 restrictions, the elimination of "remain in Mexico" and the perception that the Biden admin would be friendly to asylum seekers that caused a huge number of people at the border.
 
The "open borders" thing is and has always been nothing more than a right-wing straw man argument intended to scare and rile up its poorly-educated base. Literally no one is pounding the desk for wide-open borders, on either side. It's a ridiculous claim perpetuated by swampy GQPers that should have been quashed years ago—if the Dems could actually message worth a damn.
 
BlueSteel said:
The "open borders" thing is and has always been nothing more than a right-wing straw man argument intended to scare and rile up its poorly-educated base. Literally no one is pounding the desk for wide-open borders, on either side. It's a ridiculous claim perpetuated by swampy GQPers that should have been quashed years ago—if the Dems could actually message worth a damn.
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This, and the number of “illegals” Biden allegedly allowed into the country…15 million to 25 million, take your pick….are fallacies created by Republicans to rile up their troops. There is no factual basis.
 
finesse said:
The money spent is being wasted because the numbers under Biden do not in fact suggest a border crisis unless you just hate all immigrants. Look at those numbers and justify calling it a crisis.
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I don’t know what to tell you if you don’t see that situation as a crisis. Even faced with data you still deny it. It was arguably the 2nd biggest issue in the election. JCDing is my guess
 
ChapelHillSooner said:
So in your eyes more border apprehensions mean a more open border?
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It wasn’t just border apprehensions. It was border apprehensions, crossings that weren’t caught, non vetting of millions caught and released into the country with very little oversight, etc. it was a clusterfuck even acknowledged by leftist media.
 
Callatoroy said:
It wasn’t just border apprehensions. It was border apprehensions, crossings that weren’t caught, non vetting of millions caught and released into the country with very little oversight, etc. it was a clusterfuck even acknowledged by leftist media.
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As opposed to the crossings that aren't being caught now?
 
Callatoroy said:
I don’t know what to tell you if you don’t see that situation as a crisis. Even faced with data you still deny it. It was arguably the 2nd biggest issue in the election. JCDing is my guess
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What data? Nothing meaningful like any actual harm that immigration has done to America since it was founded.

Fwiw, my in laws say 1620 but I tell them America wasn't founded then.
 
ChileG said:
Immigration is in need of reform but Trump’s policy is not only economically harmful in the short and long term, but it is also evil and unAmerican.
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His policy is neither evil nor unamerican. It’s American to limit the numbers of immigrants allowed in and vet them before being allowed in. It’s unamerican to catch illegal immigrants guilty of committing crimes and released into them back onto the street to commit more crimes. Ask Laken Riley’s mom whose policy was unamerican.
 
Callatoroy said:
His policy is neither evil nor unamerican. It’s American to limit the numbers of immigrants allowed in and vet them before being allowed in. It’s unamerican to catch illegal immigrants guilty of committing crimes and released into them back onto the street to commit more crimes. Ask Laken Riley’s mom whose policy was unamerican.
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Is it "American" to ship a gay Venezuelan, Andry Romero, to El Salvador, where he was physically and sexually abused before being swapped for Venezuelan prisoners, which means he's now back in Venezuela, from which he fled and sought asylum in the US because he was physically and sexually abused there for being gay?
 
lawtig02 said:
Is it "American" to ship a gay Venezuelan, Andry Romero, to El Salvador, where he was physically and sexually abused before being swapped for Venezuelan prisoners, which means he's now back in Venezuela, from which he fled and sought asylum in the US because he was physically and sexually abused there for being gay?
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I don't know. Why don't you ask Laken Riley's mom her opinion on that. At least he is alive and given the media support and visibility has a chance to get back to this country. Her daughter is dead. But anecdotes aren't the issue here are they.
 
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