by Ambassador Callista L. Gingrich
With illegal immigration at the center of the political debate, Fox News anchor Brett Baier recently pressed Kamala Harris on her record of failed open-border policies.
Baier asked Harris if she owed an apology to the families of Jocelyn Nungaray, Rachel Morin, and Laken Riley – young women assaulted and killed by illegal immigrants. Though Harris offered her condolences, she failed to take any semblance of responsibility for the devastation that the immigration policies under the Biden-Harris administration have caused.
At the beginning of the Biden-Harris administration, President Joe Biden abolished more than 90 executive orders securing U.S. borders and appointed Harris as border czar, tasked with mitigating the influx of migrants at the southern border.
As Sen. J.D. Vance said at the Vice Presidential debate, “We have a historic immigration crisis because Kamala Harris wanted to undo all of Donald Trump’s border policies.”
No matter how the media tries to spin it, illegal immigration has dramatically increased under the Biden-Harris administration.
For Border Czar Harris’s first year in office, the number of encounters at the southwest border skyrocketed to 1,735,000 and totaled more than 2 million for the 2022, 2023, and 2024 fiscal years.
In total, more than 8 million illegal immigrants were encountered at the southwest border, and more than 1.9 million illegally entered the U.S. under the Biden-Harris administration.
Based on these figures, it’s clear to see why Chief Patrol Agents testified to Congress that the border crisis is “overwhelming” and that there is not a “correct adjective to describe what’s going on.”
As a recent report issued by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Accountability said, “Because of the Biden-Harris Administration’s reckless policies, human trafficking is flourishing, deadly drugs such as fentanyl are pouring into towns across the U.S., and our laws are being flouted.”
Of significant concern is the fact that the federal government has lost track of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children, with 32,000 failing to appear for immigration court hearings.
According to a report from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General, “Without an ability to monitor the location and status of [unaccompanied migrant children], ICE has no assurance they are safe from trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor.”
Sadly, this failure to monitor vulnerable children, coupled with the massive influx of illegal border crossings at the U.S. southern border is amplifying a preexisting crisis: the scourge of human trafficking.
Human trafficking cases have been reported in every U.S. state. The United States is “a source and transit country” and “one of the top destination points for victims of child trafficking,” according to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund.
A recent article by investigative reporter Madeleine Rowley revealed how the failed border policies are augmenting the tragedy of human trafficking.
After filing a Freedom of Information Act request, Rowley uncovered the increase in the number of child eligibility letters issued by the Office on Trafficking in Persons (an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). A child eligibility letter issues benefits, such as food assistance, health insurance, and medical services, to foreign national minors who are survivors of human trafficking.
An average of 625 letters were annually issued during the Trump administration. This doubled during the Biden-Harris administration. In 2021, there were 1,143 letters issued. In 2022, there were 2,226 letters. And in the first nine months of 2023, there were 2,148 letters issued.
As Rowley reported, “To put it another way, forced labor and prostitution more than tripled under [the Biden-Harris administration], reaching record highs. And that only counted the handful who had escaped – not the thousands who were still held by the traffickers.”
It is clear that there is a direct link between the open-border policies of the Biden-Harris administration and an increase in illegal immigration and human trafficking. Harris’s failures as border czar have exacerbated the crisis.
For more commentary from Callista Gingrich, visit Gingrich360.com.
