Haitians under the bridge

Easing back into the news cycle, I want to note Byron York’s Examiner column “A renewed, intensified crisis at the border.” Byron’s column takes off from the Twitter feed of FOX News reporter Bill Melugin. Byron aptly notes:

The Twitter feed of Fox News reporter Bill Melugin has been an extraordinary place for the last few days. Melugin has spent a lot of time reporting from the U.S.-Mexico border, and recently he began telling readers about a surge in illegal crossers at the international bridge in Del Rio, Texas.

The crossers are coming by the thousands, Melugin reported. “Per source, the number of migrants waiting to be processed has now swelled to approximately 8,200,” Melugin tweeted Thursday morning. “It was 4,000 yesterday AM. Doubled in one day. Border Patrol overwhelmed, and I’m told the situation is ‘out of control.'” Melugin included dramatic photos showing the extent of the situation[.]

FOX News is is course the go-to source for news on the collapse of our southern border. Yesterday FOX News reported “Migrant encounters over 200,000 again in August, as border surge continues.”

Following these developments, I wondered whether anyone outside the orbit of FOX News has a clue. FOX News has a story on that too: “ABC, CBS, NBC networks dramatically dropped off border crisis coverage in August: Study.” This must be yet another front of what Donald Luskin called The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid

In his most recent tweets Melugin reports that FNC’s drone has been grounded by the FAA. They really don’t want that eye in the sky.

Byron’s column also takes up Melugin’s reporting on the huge Haitian component of the assembled multitude waiting to be processed in Del Rio. Reuters adds that the multitude also includes Cubans, Venezuelans, and Nicaraguans. The Haitians must have found a home somewhere south of the border before they hit Texas.

Byron’s column should be read in its entirety. Whole thing here. Melugin’s Twitter feed is here.

UPDATE: Byron is back on the case this morning with “Disaster in Del Rio.” Byron writes:

Many of the Haitians who have arrived in Del Rio had left their country long before the quake. “More than 29,000 Haitians have arrived over the past 11 months,” reports the Washington Post. “Some say the economic toll of the pandemic pushed them to leave, while others see a more welcoming U.S. administration offering them a fleeting opportunity to reach the United States.” So they are coming now.

But this is not about Haiti. While the latest flare-up of the border crisis involves thousands of Haitians, the fact is, over the last several months, Border Patrol officials have detained people from at least 90 countries all around the world crossing illegally into the U.S. It’s not just Mexico or the Northern Triangle area, either. Ninety countries.

They’re all drawn by one thing: the belief, encouraged by the Biden administration, that if they can manage to cross the border into the U.S. illegally, they will be allowed to stay. Given Biden’s policies, that is an entirely rational calculation on their part.

The Biden administration is overwhelming us with policy-made catastrophes, Cloward-Piven style. Byron’s column concludes on precisely this note: “[T]he surge at Del Rio is just the latest disaster that is Biden’s border policy. It’s not an accident. It is not an unintended consequence. The president and his top aides formulated these policies knowing full well they would create powerful new incentives for would-be migrants to cross illegally into the U.S. And now it’s happening, more and more and more.”

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