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Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American power, politics and society.

On each episode, I will talk to an American expert or an expert on

America about something that's going on in America in 2023. I am delighted to be joined by

Todd Bensman, who is a senior fellow at the Centre for Immigration Studies, and the author of a forthcoming book coming out in February

called Overrun, How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest Border Crisis in US History.

Now, Todd, we're going to talk about Joe Biden being in Mexico

because that's where he is.

He's due to meet with President Obrador and Justin Trudeau of Canada, the three amigos, as they're being dubbed, and they're going to talk about lots of things. But the overwhelming issue, I think for most Americans, it's fair to say, in relation to Mexico, is immigration. Can you tell us a bit about Joe Biden's track record on immigration, how

bigger concern it is for Americans, and what reforms might come about as a result of any

discussions with the Mexican government? Sure. Well, about 30,000 a month were crossing the

southern border when Joe Biden took office. Within a month,

that number was about 200,000 and then stayed in the 200,000 range every month for two years

straight, resulting in, you know, by far the, you know, greatest number of apprehensions

and entrances into the United States over its southern border in its recorded history.

Altogether, you know, the estimates are about $5 million in 24 months. So this is really something beyond

the American experience. The cause of that great mass migration crisis, more than anything else,

are policies that were enacted on inauguration day, literally on the very

first day and in the ensuing week about maybe several hundred different decisions that were

made ready for implementation as soon as he entered office. And the immigrants around the world,

you know, heard that and saw that they could get in and that they were being allowed in over

the border. And when they see the upstream immigrants being allowed in, the downstream ones

...