Deming, NM – A fourth-generation border rancher told Fox News that decades of poor immigration policies under the Biden administration have made a New Mexico rancher a caretaker of immigrants.
“I feel like we’re just killing ourselves,” said Amanda Adam, whose ranch is eight miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. “This is our administration. We need a lot of order.”
How Biden’s border crisis forced this rancher to care for refugees:
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Immigrant apprehensions at the US-Mexico border skyrocketed shortly after President Biden took office, with more than 1.7 million apprehensions in fiscal year 2021 and more than 2.3 million in 2022, according to Customs and Border Protection. Crossings have fallen since Title 42 in May, with fewer than 145,000 immigrants last month compared to about 208,000 in June 2022.
Still, nearly three-quarters of Americans with political affiliations say the southern border is either a “crisis” or a “big problem,” according to a Gallup poll conducted June 1-22. This figure was only two percent less than in 2019.
“It’s not just the president’s fault,” Adam said. Congress, too, “can’t get their act together and talk to each other.”
China is trying to gain a foothold on America’s doorstep amid border crisis, top Republican warns
Biden visited the southern border for the first time in January 2023 after nearly two years in office. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnick)
Earlier this month, the House Judiciary Committee invited Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Meyerkas to testify on July 26 about concerns over the Biden administration’s immigration policies and programs. Some Republican lawmakers have even called for Mayorka’s impeachment over her handling of the border crisis.
A border controlled by cartels, not Americans, residents of Yuma say gangs are making billions from human trafficking.
Adame, who witnessed the height of the border crisis firsthand, said the federal government “needs to pave the way for people who want to come here” but must find better ways to curb illegal immigration.
“I want immigration,” Adam said. “This is how our world changes here in America. But we can’t let them get out of hand.”
New Mexico ranchers have sympathized with some of these refugees. There has been trouble on his property as more migrants have crossed his farm in recent years. A woman he encountered was walking without shoes. Another was carrying medicine while he was on his way to the hospital. He died soon after.
“If they run out of water, we give them water,” Adam said. “We feed them. Most of the time we call the Border Patrol for them. It’s not a pleasant experience.”
A fourth-generation New Mexico rancher estimates that migrant crossings on his property have doubled in the past few years. Image has been blurred to remove Adam’s phone number. (Megan Myers/Fox News Digital)
Republican critics have blamed the immigration surge on the Biden administration for rolling back Trump-era policies, including blocking the Migrant Protection Protocol and construction of a border wall. The House Homeland Security Committee is also investigating Meyerkas’ handling of the border crisis and what members have called a “dereliction of duty.”
Some states have taken matters into their own hands. In Texas, for example, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott installed an inflatable water barrier to prevent migrants from crossing and began funneling refugees to sanctuary cities. The White House has condemned these actions.
A New Mexico rancher fears for his safety eight miles from the southern border:
But Meyerkas has argued that the Biden administration has operated within a broken system that Congress has failed to fund and fix, while working to expand legal asylum pathways closed by previous administrations. Just before Title 42 expired, the Biden administration removed the immigrant release policy that allowed immigrants to be released without court dates and reverted to Title 8, imposing tougher penalties. For illegal border crossings.
The number of immigrants dropped sharply in June as the Biden administration’s post-Title 42 strategy took shape.
“I cannot overemphasize that our current situation is the result of Congress maintaining a broken, outdated immigration system for more than two decades, despite unanimous agreement that we desperately need legislative reform,” Meyerkas said at a news conference in May. “It’s also the result of a decision by Congress not to provide us with the resources that we need and that we requested.”
Meyerkas accused Congress of not addressing and funding border issues over the past two decades. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Adam said the government “needs to pave the way for our law enforcement agencies to do a good job and catch people, so they can prosecute the people they catch”. “We need immigration reform.”
As of May 2023, the US immigration system is backlogged with more than 1.3 million asylum applications, According to the Migration Policy Institute. Several administrations have changed or implemented policies to deal with the immigration system. For example, President George W. Bush tried to push comprehensive immigration reform through Congress in 2007, but the effort was blocked.
Supplies for Trump’s unfinished border wall sit along the New Mexico border. Adam says his farm is a few miles from where the wall ends. (Megan Myers/Fox News Digital)
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Adam told Fox News that she doesn’t blame any one person for the border crisis because she’s seen decades of bad immigration policies. The fourth-generation rancher said some administrations have had better plans to deal with the border crisis, such as former President Trump’s border wall, but most have failed to make lasting change.
“I blame them all,” she said. “I’m not against immigration, but I’m against people coming in and not doing it right. There’s got to be something we can do.”
To hear more about life on the southern frontier at Adam’s Ranch, click here.
Adam Shaw of Fox News contributed to this report.
Source by [Fox News]
