The Biden border crisis has reached the point where even some of the cable news networks have felt compelled to talk about it. For many, it seems as if the coverage of the debacle at Del Rio was the final straw. The President’s approval rating for his handling of the border situation is approaching single digits in some areas. Surely Joe Biden has directed the Department of Homeland Security to take steps to get things under control, right? You bet he has. A new memo issued by DHS chief Alejandro Mayorkas this week sets forth new guidelines for the arrest, detention, and deportation of illegal aliens crossing the border into the United States. The solution they’ve come up with is certainly unique. Since there are more people crossing the borders now than they can possibly arrest and detain, we’re just going to stop doing that for most of them and let them go on their way. (NY Post)

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ordered authorities Thursday to prioritize illegal immigrants for deportation who “pose a threat to national security, public safety, and border security” — claiming that the government does not have the resources to apprehend every person who has entered the US unlawfully.

“The fact an individual is a removable noncitizen … should not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them,” reads the seven-page memo from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “We will use our discretion and focus our enforcement resources in a more targeted way. Justice and our country’s well-being require it.” …

Authorities would also be prohibited from arresting and seeking to deport someone in retaliation for exercising First Amendment rights, such as joining a protest or taking part in union activities, Mayorkas wrote.

That’s a pretty staggering admission from the Biden administration, isn’t it? The United States “does not have the resources to apprehend every person who has entered the US unlawfully.”

So who will be getting a free pass? First of all, pretty much anyone that they can’t find a criminal record on. They will be interviewed and released. But the list doesn’t stop there. An illegal alien’s status will not be determined “according to bright lines,” according to Mayorkas. His memo goes on to say that there can be “mitigating factors” that would prevent the deportation of illegal aliens known to have committed crimes. Those factors will include “advanced or tender age” and “lengthy presence in the United States.” Also, any potential “impact on family members in the United States” caused by their deportation must be taken into consideration.

So criminal illegal aliens can be given a pass if they are too young or too old. Also, if they have been in the country for a long time. How long? The memo specifically instructs border agents to focus their efforts on migrants who arrived in the country “after Nov. 1, 2020.” That’s eleven months. If you’ve managed to avoid being caught or arrested for eleven months you’re pretty much good to go. Are they serious?

I would call this a case of throwing in the towel, but it actually seems to be in line with the open borders policy that Joe Biden has been pushing for since day one. If he can’t manage to have the Democrats in Congress force through some sort of general amnesty, he’ll simply change the “prioritization” of suspected illegal aliens to the point where virtually all of them will be allowed to freely enter the country and not be subject to detention or deportation.

In a sane world, when you have so many illegals streaming across the border that you don’t have the resources to deal with them all, a different course of action would be taken. First, you would assign more resources to the problem so that you can enforce the laws that you took an oath to uphold. Then you would get back to building a better set of barriers across the border so you could at least significantly slow the flow of humanity streaming in. If only we had someone to take charge of this issue and get those things done. Perhaps some sort of, I don’t know… border czar?