“We know exactly how to shut it down. We need to make illegal entry illegal.”
— Border patrol agent speaking to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
By: Mark Glennon*
If you think it’s exaggeration to call the situation at the Mexican border an invasion, read on. If you think it’s exaggeration to say that it’s a major and growing obstacle to containing COVID, keep. going. But if you expect to read something about our political establishment taking it seriously, forget it.
Napoleon invaded Russia with 685,000 troops. North Korea invaded South Korea with 135,000. The Allies invaded Europe with 2 million to retake it from the Nazis, which is about what they had in France three months after D-Day.
But this year alone over 2 million illegal entries from Mexico are expected. Even CNN acknowledges that number, but the true number likely will be far, far more. That’s an invasion. It’s not that the entrants are vile in some way comparable to invaders who start wars – everybody, hopefully, feels compassion for them and understands why they come. But, numerically speaking, it’s an invasion.
What is the impact on efforts to contain COVID? Unquestionably, bigger causes are behind the current surge in COVID, the largest by far being the Delta variant that is far more contagious than the original virus. Nobody is claiming that the border crisis is the primary cause of the current spike.
But it’s absurd to claim that COVID isn’t another major reason why the border must be enforced. COVID at the border is a growing, serious concern.
A stunning 18 percent of illegal migrants are estimated to be infected. “More than 18 percent of migrant families and 20 percent of unaccompanied minors who recently crossed the U.S. border tested positive for Covid on leaving Border Patrol custody” over a recent, reported NBC, citing a briefing document prepared for President Joe Biden.
That’s far worse than in the American population where no more than about three percent are infected at any given time. The 18% for illegal immigrants no doubt stems largely from much lower vaccination rates in the countries from which migrants are coming. Over half of Americans are now fully vaccinated. In Mexico, however, the rate is just 22%, and many immigrants come from countries like Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica and El Salvador where most vaccination rates are far lower
The Biden Administration is returning to Mexico many of the immigrants it apprehends, supposedly around 170,000 per month. The administration is keeping in place a Trump-era policy of turning some migrants away at the southern border without allowing them to claim asylum due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But huge numbers of the infected unquestionably are getting through undetected or being let in:
• Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, are never apprehended and tested – the “got-aways,” as they are called. Nobody knows for sure how many of those there are, but “Border Patrol agents who do work on the border, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, “swear the got-away percentages are upwards of 90 percent or even more.” CNN said it’s about 1,500 per day, which is over half a million per year. But that was in May and illegal crossings have surged since then. The estimated 2 million illegal entries this year is based only on published number of “encounters” with border agents, now running over 200,000 per month. The press seems obsessed with that measure but it ignores the got-aways.
• Officials in McAllen, Texas say more than 7,000 out of nearly 88,000 migrants released by border patrol in the city since February had tested positive for COVID-19, a positivity rate of more than 8%, according to CBS. But that rate has been increasing. Last week, 14.8% of migrants released from U.S. custody into the city of McAllen tested positive.
• U.S Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat, said in a press release that the migrant surge has resulted in the temporary shutdown of Catholic Charities (the primary organization that assists new migrants); nearly 70 border agents testing positive for COVID-19 in the Rio Grande Valley sector; 17 border agents testing positive for COVID-19 in the Laredo sector; and 233 hospital beds occupied in the area.
A member of President Biden’s COVID-19 health equity task force, a virologist, essentially admitted that releasing immigrants is a key “tool “used to contain COVID. “Probably the most important thing that ICE can consider is release, because even with more efforts toward vaccination, being in a detention setting increases your risk of contracting COVID and it increases your risk of death,” he said.
Where are illegal immigrants who are allowed to stay sent?
Good question, but don’t expect anybody to have asked it in Illinois or most other places. We do know that former acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Mark Morgan says the Biden Administration has sent at least 40,000 infected immigrants to various cities in the interior of America. Forty thousand “at least,” he said. “That’s conservative.”
What’s clear is that Illinois appears to be doing everything it can think of, through legislation and administrative action, to bring illegal immigrants here. We listed its most recent measures here.
All this happens while Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas repeatedly tells the public that the border is under control, while saying the opposite in private. In a leaked tape of a meeting, he said, “if our borders are the first line of defense, we’re going to lose and this is unsustainable…. We can’t continue like this, our people in the field can’t continue and our system isn’t built for it.”
And he earlier said this: “We’re not saying, ‘Don’t come,’ we are saying ‘don’t come now.'” That was in March. Now they are coming.
It was in the recent, taped meeting that a border agent said what’s partially quoted above. “For those of us who have been around here long enough…we don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” he told Mayorkas. “We’ve had this happen before. We know exactly how to shut it down. We need to make illegal entry illegal.”
It’s long past time that the obvious questions be put to Governor JB Pritzker and other public officials who claim to be so dedicated to fighting COVID: Why aren’t you demanding that the border be enforced? Are infected immigrants being sent to Illinois? How many of Illinois’ COVID infections have been in illegal immigrants. Do you even know? Do you care?
The border must be enforced.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
UPDATE AND CORRECTION: The portion of the current U.S. population currently infected, shown in the seventh paragraph, was corrected, being changed from one percent to three percent.
With $162 billion more from taxpayers, couldn’t you deliver a few bond upgrades, too
Audio and summary 
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
this virus was manufactured by the chinese commies,has nothing to do with alot of the things you mentioned above-this was intentional
hilarious,ive got some tofu you can have while im enjoying my rib eye steak!
These totals on “illegals” seldom seem to catalogue where they’re from. How about a breakdown by geographical region – Central America, South America, Central Asia, Oceania, etc. – if presenting numbers by countries is too onerous? Will fleeing Afghans find their way to Mexico? Will we ever know if they do?
Does the dramatic collapse of Afghanistan presage our own demise? Sudden and unanticipated?
Unanticipated only by the leftists who don’t have much of a grasp on reality. Exhibit 1- Nancy Pelosi demanding a “place at the negotiating table for Afghan women”. Even if this were a negotiation, one look at the Taliban should tell you that women will not be involved. Leftists are not tethered to the real world.
She is not like you or me. She has no conscience or filter that stops her from saying untrue things. She just says things without any regard for the truth of the statement. She doesn’t even care if its true or false, the thought that it might be untrue or absurd doesn’t even cross her mind. She says it anyways believing that it gives her authority or the outcome she desires by making such a patently false or wildly naive statement.
Once you accept that she will say anything, anything at all, it makes sense.
That’s true of the entire left today. Lying and hypocrisy mean absolutely nothing.
She got caught in a hair salon, without a mask, during the early days of the pandemic, and reminiscent of crack smoking DC Mayor Marion Barry, she claims SHE was the victim because she was set up. Even her co-oligarch, Gavin Newson, admitted he was wrong and it was a mistake to not wear a mask at the French Laundry; but Pelosi flipped that upside down and blamed the Salon owner for setting her up, and it was the salon owner’s fault that she wasn’t wearing a mask and got caught. They just say things, ridiculous, patently false things, the… Read more »
Psychopath sums it up.
The left has made anyone that doesn’t think like them politically a be despised, hated, fought and un-tolerated. This of course is the exact opposite of diversity and tolerance. Of course in order to still own the word “diversity” they had to redefine it and salt it with “inclusion” and “equity”. The latter two are the words that suddenly seem to have replaced “merit” and “opportunity” respectively. Gone is the day when elected leaders respected true diversity in their ranks. In losing that they disrespect the citizens that elected whatever random mix of minds they put there to represent them.
Whatever happened to testing for TB, which nowadays has more virulent, drug-resistant strains?
Long ago and far away anyone landing at Ellis Island who showed signs of TB was sent back whence they came. Tough love, 19th century style.
Illegals may wind up in some restaurant kitchen where today a clear x-ray is not a condition of employment. Moral: eat at home.
Been saying this since Biden took office and opened borders. Just takes a little common sense to know if you increase population especially with migrants coming from countries with little or no healthcare and illegally that there will be a spike in covid. I think the writer of this article is giving too much credit in the estimated numbers also, I believe the percentage is MUCH higher than 18% and that’s only testing the ONES they catch!!
I thought I had read somewhere that the number of infected was closer to 40%. This would make sense, given the close quarters that people are in, as they come across and are detained.
Mark is probably aware of that, but chose a source that could be independently verified.
The total infected to date in the US is at least 40%. For example, IL has 1.4M reported cases, and it is widely agreed there are at least 4 actual cases for every reported cases, and that gets you to over 40% of Illinois’s 12.7M population. But the point here was that 18% of immigrants are currently infected, which is huge, compared to the US. How many Americans are currently infected? Look at the average daily new cases and multiply by it by 14. That’s the incubation time — how long an infection lasts. Use 21 days to be conservative,… Read more »
More than the absurd level of incompetence of the policy, am I the only one who reads this and is struck by the duplicity of these Democrats? I’m not sure if it’s reassuring or frightening. It is like everything in this country is managed only for optics. No one seems to care about the policy, but how the policy looks. I get it, that’s what politicians do, but what will it take to stop all this damn fakery? From the other comments, I’m gathering that many of us just want to scream at these politicians to “shut the hell up!”… Read more »
With the vaccine… medical exemptions not allowed, religious exemptions not allowed, personal choice not allowed. But if you are a blank slate mind, a person in fear of deportation, recruited to be indoctrinated as a lifetime democratic party voter, we’ll overlook that fever you’re walking around with. Because you are in fear of being deported, you are ultra-compliant and can be molded easily into the marxist collective.
Not enough people died from the preplanned pandemic Covid-19, so it seems the next wave will be shipping the infected illegals throughout the country. Biden is the democrats Trojan horse. They chose him because he is old, demented, and egotistical. The end goal is to destroy America as we’ve known it.
“The 18% for illegal immigrants no doubt stems largely from much lower vaccination rates in the countries from which migrants are coming”
Is this a fact or just conjecture.
How about sanitary conditions in third world countries.
Are you also going to maintain that the flu and common cold disappeared due to mask use and social distancing?
You can do better (and I agree with your point, just took exception to your assumption.
Look at the vaccination rates for those countries in the link I provided. Three of those countries are 5% or under. All the rest are under 25%. US is over 50%. Even with what we now know about reduced efficacy of the vaccine, it’s pretty obvious that lower vaccination rates contribute heavily to their higher infection rate, along with other causes like the ones you mentioned. https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2020-03-01..latest&facet=none&pickerSort=desc&pickerMetric=location&Metric=People+fully+vaccinated&Interval=7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+Population=true&Align+outbreaks=false&country=MEX~USA~CRI~GTM~HND~SLV~NIC
hey politicians,youre all a bunch of lying a-holes!-anyone with a brain sees thru your lying bs-most of you fake weaklings should be recalled,oh yeah,this is illinoiz,youll be re-elected!-f-ing dummies!
these f-ing idiots could stop this if they wanted to,its called a BORDER WALL!-the real question is WHY are they allowing this to happen,my guess is future democrap voters?
You won’t find this story on the news in this state. It is irrefutable that the thousands streaming into this country at our southern border are unvaccinated. The sorry excuse of a governor won’t acknowledge this issue. He is a sorry excuse for a human being.
American Marxism
I hear a new quarantine facility popped up in Martha’s Vineyard.
Seems like just yesterday when they didn’t want to reopen schools due to the “what if just one child…” argument.
I don’t think JB has a clue about the border crisis. He is having his “moment” right now signing all those bills. After his hands get cramps or carpel tunnel he will make sure they are welcome in Chicago and Illinois.
You mean like the “landmark” bill he just signed — on hair discrimination? https://www.illinois.gov/news/press-release.23726.html
The hair discrimination bill was the lead headline on lots of local news pages. I guess I didn’t realize the enormity of the problem. ?????
yep!-and they are also concerned about important things like which statues are offensive and what to name lake shore drive!
At least Cousin Itt won’t be discriminated against anymore! I’m sure teachers gave him/her a hard time.