I've spent the last 20 years of my life dealing with the issue of immigration,

first as a reporter in Texas, then as an intelligence officer in the Texas government,

and now as a fellow for the Center for Immigration Studies.

I've been all over Texas, Mexico, and Central America, and I've pretty much seen it all.

But I've never seen anything like what I've seen since January 2021. No one has.

According to US government data, some 8 million people have illegally entered the United States

from 2021 to 2024.

These are the people we know about, but it's hardly the whole story.

Another 2 million must be added to the total.

These are the gotaways, the one seen by border agents but never apprehended,

and the ones who enter the country through a myriad of other ways.

That brings us to a grand total of 10 million illegal crossers in three years, an average of 300,000 every month

since Joe Biden was inaugurated president.

That is the greatest mass movement across national borders in U.S. history

and maybe the greatest in human history, and they'll keep coming if we continue our current

policies. That's not a guess. That's a guarantee. How can I say that? Because I know why they're

coming. They've told me over and over and over again. It's not because they fear political persecution in their home country, it's not because

they fear the drug cartels, and it's not because they fear their abusive husbands.

Sure, some fraction of migrants fit those descriptions, but the overwhelming majority are coming

for a much more obvious reason to work and make money in the world's richest country.

Simple as that. It's an economic calculation. Risk versus reward. If the

reward of entering the U.S. is greater than the risk of deportation, migrants will come.

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