Karine Jean-Pierre Makes Laughable Assertion That Illegal Migration Is ‘Down By More Than 90 Percent’

A reporter asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre how President Joe Biden will address the ongoing crisis at the United States’ southern border on Monday.

According to Jean-Pierre, it has — for the most part — already been addressed:

He has asked Congress to take action — Republicans in Congress to take action and to take — and to work on this in a bipartisan way. He’s going to continue to do that.

In the meantime, he’s put forth some — he has tools that he’s used to make sure that we actually deal with the immigration system in a humane way, and in a way that is that — that actually deals with what we’re seeing at the border.

And that’s why you’ve seen the parolee program be so successful. It has — when it comes to illegal migration, you’ve seen it come down by more than 90 percent, and that’s because of the actions that this President has taken.

That would be quite the accomplishment, one that would make Biden unassailable on the issue going into his reelection campaign. But the lack of context in Jean-Pierre’s answer betrays its deceptiveness. Ninety percent, she says. Over what time period? By what measure?

The answer, according to Bill Melugin, a Fox News correspondent who covers the southern border, is far more narrow than the press secretary implied.

“False,” replied Melugin to a clip of Jean-Pierre on Twitter. “There was a window of time earlier this year where encounters with Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, and Cubans did temporarily dip 90% after a policy change, but other countries, like China, shot up over 800%. Illegal crossings, including Venezuelans, back at peak highs now.”

And on the very same day that Jean-Pierre was either clumsily or intentionally boasting about a nonexistent drop in illegal migration, U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz reported that his agency had apprehended 22,220 people, 806 pounds of methamphetamine, 283 pounds of marijuana, and 62 pounds of cocaine in just 72 hours.

In March, Ortiz offered congressional testimony that the U.S. does not have operational control of its southern border with Mexico despite Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s claims otherwise.

Ortiz’s evaluation is is evidenced by the high-level numbers. In 2021, authorities encountered 1,734,686 migrants trying to illegally cross into the country at the southern border. In 2022, that number ballooned to 2,378,944. Through March — April’s numbers have not yet been tallied — 2023 is on pace to see even more attempted illegal crossings at the border.

But because Jean-Pierre is laboring under the misimpression that the crisis has abated, she went on to deflect criticism onto the president’s rivals. “Republicans,” submitted Jean-Pierre, “have continued to use this as a political stunt, a political tool, and not actually come to the table to have a conversation on how to protect DREAMers and farmworkers.”

The administration may believe it will be able to collectively grit its teeth and lie through them about the state of affairs at the border, but that is another in a long line of myths it holds to on the subject. The RealClearPolitics average of Biden’s approval rating for his handling of the board shows him underwater by almost 24 points.

Political communications professionals mislead on behalf of their principals; that’s a fact of life. But when those false claims are so outrageous on their face that they underscore not just incompetence but apathy, they might not be worth their cost.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.