Skyrocketing Number of Deaths Shows Human Cost of Biden's Border Policies—'It's Like a Graveyard'

The media often reports on the increasing number of illegal aliens and the hundreds of thousands of “gotaways” entering our country at the southern border under President Joe Biden’s watch, but what doesn’t always get as much attention is the number of people dying as they attempt the perilous trek.

Many get swept away by the powerful currents of the Rio Grande, perish by falling from cliffs along mountain passes or die from dehydration, or by getting lost at sea.

In one of the worst cases, which I reported on in September 2022, 53 illegals were found dead in the back of a semi that had been abandoned by the driver so he could go on a meth bender.

“It’s like a graveyard,” said Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber, who grew up in the area. “I’ve been working on the border for almost four decades and never saw tragedies of this magnitude.”

“A lot of corpses and there was nowhere to put them.” Authorities are overwhelmed by the record number of migrants who die trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. https://t.co/5bxTjtV9gQ

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) March 17, 2023

The Wall Street Journal reports the tragic numbers:

The bodies of more than 890 migrants, a record number, were recovered by U.S. authorities along the border in the 2022 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to the Biden administration, a 58% increase over 2021.

There are so many bodies that often it’s a struggle to find a place to put them. A local businessman describes the situation:

Across the [Rio Grande] river, families having picnics or walking along the waterfront promenade of Piedras Negras, Mexico, say they sometimes see bodies floating by or bobbing among the reeds under a bridge. “We had times when we received four or five bodies a week,” said Hugo González, owner of Funerarias González in Piedras Negras. “At one point, there were a lot of corpses and there was nowhere to put them. We just didn’t have enough refrigerators at the funeral home.”

Often the bodies end up in mass graves, never even identified. But why is crossing the Rio Grande so perilous? Arizona Republican Representative Andy Biggs explains that the currents are often far deadlier than they appear. Watch:

The Rio Grande river is no joke.
It is responsible for many deaths along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Biden Administration must stop encouraging illegal aliens to cross it. pic.twitter.com/UopNklLblF
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) March 14, 2023

I liken it to the homelessness situation in places like California and the state of Washington (home of the once-lovely Seattle). Those who preach care and love are often the ones who are hurting illegals and the homeless the most. Thousands are dying on the streets due to “tolerant” policies on the “unhoused” issue, while thousands more are dying at the border because of Biden’s open border policies.

Is this really caring about your fellow human being, as they so often claim?

Joe Biden’s open-borders policies are inhumane. More migrants have been found dead on U.S. soil than ever before under Biden.
He’s promised entry into the U.S. He’s promised amnesty. No wonder millions of people are paying the cartels to get to the border.
This is shameful. pic.twitter.com/r7CLO5gOHC

— Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) March 14, 2023

But is this surge at the border really all Biden’s fault? My colleague Mike Miller shows that yes—yes it is:

In his first days in office, Biden stopped construction of the Trump border wall; ended the Trump-era travel bans; created the Family Reunification Task Force to find and reunify families separated under the Trump administration, and reinstated DACA — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — the program that shields so-called Dreamers from deportation.

As Miller so aptly puts it, “Biden could have staged welcoming mariachi bands along the border and pinatas for the kids, and the crisis wouldn’t have been noticeably worse.”

Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz recently admitted that the Department of Homeland Security does not have operational control of the southern border, contradicting his lying boss DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who laughably claimed otherwise.

The only conclusion one can make from Biden’s absolute refusal to deal with the border—along with his surrogate “border czar” Kamala Harris—is that this is what they want.

Neither has found the time to even visit the Rio Grande, much less take effective action to stem the flow of illegals. There are costs here—and the costs are the corpses of the unfortunate souls who embarked on a perilous journey feeling they had an express invitation from the Biden administration—which in effect, they did.

I always find it histrionic when writers write that a politician has “blood on his hands,” but in this case, there is a tragic rise in dead people, and that rise can be directly laid at the feet of Biden and his border policies.