WASHINGTON—The Heritage Foundation’s homeland security team responded Monday to reports of shocking new numbers about the border crisis. In July, according to multiple news reports, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recorded more than 210,000 apprehensions—an increase of more than 30,000 from June and the second-highest monthly total ever, based on available data. Additionally, the number of unaccompanied minors picked up by Border Patrol agents in July is expected to exceed 19,000, which would break the administration’s previous record from March of 18,877. This crisis was already historic. Now it’s time to hit the panic button.  

• Chad Wolf, former acting DHS secretary and Heritage visiting fellow: “The crisis at our southern border is unprecedented and unconscionable. The Biden administration was given the most secure border in American history, thanks to effective policies like the Migrant Protection Protocols, asylum cooperative agreements with the Northern Triangle, and ongoing construction of the border wall system. This administration proceeded to tear it all down, and is now reaping the consequences.  
  
  “More than 210,000 apprehensions are almost beyond belief—that number means Border Patrol agents apprehended around 7,000 migrants per day. The Obama administration famously believed 1,000 apprehensions a day constituted a crisis, and we’ve now hit seven times that number. This simply cannot be allowed to continue. This administration must be held accountable for its failed border strategy, and Congress must reject amnesty as part of the infrastructure debate currently raging in the House and Senate.” 
   
• Mark Morgan, former acting CBP commissioner and Heritage visiting fellow: “As the former head of Customs and Border Protection, I have one message for the Biden administration: end this assault on our border communities, the rule of law, and federal law enforcement now. It’s unfortunate, but the Biden administration is knowingly and willfully violating its sacred oath to uphold and defend the Constitution and our laws. Its open-borders policies are directly responsible for this massive crisis, and it continues to push recklessly forward rather than respond to the reality on the ground and abandon its foolish course.  
  
  “As the Biden administration works to orchestrate a massive amnesty for those entering our country illegally, it’s not just illegal aliens pouring across the border. Biden’s border crisis is worsening the drug crisis across America. Record amounts of opioids like fentanyl are being smuggled by the cartels across an increasingly open border and finding their way into towns and cities across America. States like West Virginia, Ohio, and Michigan have lost record numbers of men and women to opioid-involved overdose deaths in recent years, and the Biden administration’s effort to secure perceived political benefits from opening our borders is only fueling the opioid crisis in these states and others. Don’t get numb to the massive numbers. Biden’s border crisis has a real human cost, and Americans across the country are paying it, while Washington ignores, and actually exacerbates, the problem.”   
   
• Lora Ries, former acting DHS deputy chief of staff and Heritage senior research fellow: “The United States is fast losing its security and its sovereignty thanks to the Biden administration’s open-borders policies. One cannot look at what’s happening on our southern border and conclude anything other than the Biden administration is attempting to reshape the electorate via illegal immigration. Americans already feel that the elites in Washington disdain them, care nothing for their struggles and challenges, and in many cases, actively work against their best interests. Is there any better evidence of that sentiment than the Biden administration’s continued embrace of open borders in pursuit of perceived political benefits?  
  
  “The United States stands unique in history as a nation built on the rule of law, and government by and for the people. Sadly, the Biden administration is making a mockery of our laws by refusing to enforce them, and actively encouraging others to break them. It is a government ignoring the will of the people, who see this crisis for what it is, and are desperate for leaders who will act on their behalf, not those who aren’t even American citizens. The Biden administration’s embrace of open borders is only eroding trust and confidence in our government, an erosion that is accelerating day by day.” 

For more information on the Biden border crisis, visit Heritage’s resource at TheBidenBorderCrisis.com. The website chronicles in one place the various actions the Biden administration has taken to open America’s southern border, undermine the rule of law, and mislead Americans about what is happening at the border.