Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is expected to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas today (Dec 27), according to the US Department of State. The high-level meeting comes as the first wave of an 8,000-person caravan is anticipated to make landfall at the US border.
The migrant caravan has been picking up steam as it winds through Mexico. Politico reported that around 6,000 people were headed to the border on Christmas Eve. By Dec. 26, the New York Post had numbers upward of 8,000 in the human column and interviewed a migrant leader who asserted that the mass of humanity could reach up to as many as 15,000 people.
US Border Braces for Impact
(Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
Blinken is catching a ride to Mexico with Mayorkas because of the increasing national security threat that lies beneath the surface of these numbers. Fox reported 169 known or suspected terrorist (KST) encounters in 2023 – up from 98 in 2022. In 2019, zero KST encounters were reported by the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).
Recently, Liberty Nation informed readers of an incident near the US border where Mexican authorities seized ten improvised explosive devices (IEDs). CBP statistics reveal the number of criminal non-citizens encountered at the border ballooned from 4,296 in 2019 to 15,267 in 2023.
Since Joe Biden became president and reversed the tough immigration policies of Donald Trump’s administration, people from across the globe have been flooding the southern US border in record numbers. The leftist media were initially mum about the rising number of illegal crossers. However, conservative news outlets have been unrelenting in their coverage, not only writing but showing photographs and videos to the public, so the issue has become impossible to ignore.
The other catalyst broadening the message that the Biden administration's immigration policies have been detrimental to the United States was action by border governors who began shipping illegal migrants to sanctuary cities. When Democratic mayors like New York City's Eric Adams started crying no bueno to the 150,000 persons bused to the Big Apple, the leftist press could no longer avoid the topic and began to cover it.
This set off a chain reaction: Broad media coverage spilling over political lines began to increase public awareness. This set off a shift in the polls; when the polls changed, politicians started paying attention. In 2023, Gallup conducted a survey that found Americans' satisfaction with US immigration policy had dropped from 34% to 28%. Suddenly, Democrats found themselves in an untenable position and wondering how to separate themselves from the actions of their president.
Now that polls reveal voters are disturbed by the record-breaking number of immigrants illegally entering the United States – surprise – the Biden administration is trying to pivot. This is why Blinken and Mayorkas are meeting with the Mexican president. What will they propose, and will it do any good, or is it merely window-dressing designed to alter sinking public opinion? Or is it too little, too late?
The procession headed for the US border is so vast and unrelenting, and the photographs and video so jaw-dropping, even the most politically progressive cannot find a way to close their eyes to the inhumanity of the ocean of humanity. At their peril, these migrants are ready to ford the Rio Grande carrying children and scale walls laced with concertina razor wire. In short, they are desperate people heading toward a country that has reached its meniscus. Now it’s up to the Biden administration to fix the mess it has made and do it before the 2024 election or suffer the consequences at the ballot box.
