Does Anyone In Congress Care That A Quarter Of A Million Illegal Immigrants Were Arrested In October?

It’s no secret by now that President Joe Biden has ushered in an unprecedented and disastrous crisis at America’s southern border. So, why aren’t congressional Republicans doing anything to stop him?

On Tuesday, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced it had apprehended nearly a quarter of a million (240,988) illegal aliens at the U.S.-Mexico border in October. While the totals mark a slight (11 percent) decrease from September’s peak numbers, it’s a record high for the month of October, contributing to the worsening border crisis brought about by the Biden administration’s lax enforcement policies.

Last month, CBP arrested an all-time record high of 269,735 illegals, bringing the total number of apprehensions for fiscal year 2023 “to more than 2.47 million.” As The Federalist’s Tristan Justice reported, CBP’s September numbers “also broke the record for the number of migrants attempting to enter who are on the government’s terror watch list.” Fiscal year 2023’s totals represent an alarming trend upward from the roughly 2.38 million encounters recorded in fiscal year 2022 and 1.73 million in 2021.

It’s worth mentioning that these figures don’t even include the more than 1.7 million “gotaways” who have successfully avoided capture when crossing the border since Biden took office.

The ongoing crisis — which empowers Mexican-based cartels and their human and drug smuggling operations — apparently doesn’t matter to some House Republicans, however. On Monday, eight GOP representatives voted with Democrats to block a resolution introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for his allowance of the disaster to continue unaddressed.

The Republicans who sided with Democrats are Republican Reps. Darrell Issa, Tom McClintock, and John Duarte of California, Ken Buck of Colorado, Patrick McHenry and Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, Cliff Bentz of Oregon, and Mike Turner of Ohio.

Despite his own agency admitting that Biden’s open border policies are making it easier for terrorists to enter the United States, Mayorkas has routinely abdicated his responsibility to secure the American homeland and stonewalled congressional Republican inquiries into the matter. During a Senate committee hearing last month, Mayorkas dodged questions about how many foreign nationals had unlawfully crossed the U.S. southern border, and avoided addressing why he hadn’t fired a DHS employee who openly sided with Hamas over the terrorist organization’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

But it’s not just eight House Republicans who are protecting the Biden administration from accountability for creating America’s border crisis. House GOP leadership led by Speaker Mike Johnson is also gearing up to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government for the next several months that does nothing to address the ongoing disaster. The horribly crafted proposal has since prompted opposition from the House Freedom Caucus, whose members specifically highlighted its failure to address the border.

This CR contains “no spending reductions, no border security, and not a single meaningful win for the American People,” the group’s statement reads. “Republicans must stop negotiating against ourselves over fears of what the Senate may do with the promise ‘roll over today and we’ll fight tomorrow.’ While we remain committed to working with Speaker Johnson, we need bold change.”

Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

The Federalist