EDITORIAL: The Del Rio Migrant Mess

 If President Biden wanted to undermine his chances for immigration reform, he couldn’t do a better job than his first eight months in office. The massing of thousands of Haitians under a bridge near Del Rio, Texas, in recent days is the latest example of government failure and perverse incentives that are producing chaos at the border.

The scenes from the area couldn’t have been scripted better by immigration restrictionists: Thousands of migrants crossing the Rio Grande en masse in the expectation that they’ll be able to claim asylum in the U.S. The thousands of Haitians fleeing desperate poverty somehow made it to Mexico, then traveled to the border, probably with the help of the cartels that control the human traffic.

U.S. border agents have closed the legal Del Rio Port of Entry, so normal cross-border traffic essential for commerce is shut down. Some 15,000 Haitians and others are trapped in awful conditions around the Del Rio International Bridge, without basic necessities. The migrants may be carrying Covid-19, and border agents are overwhelmed. 

So are local communities in Texas. Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano, a Democrat, is pleading on national TV for the feds to control the border. The federal Department of Homeland Security says it is surging 400 agents to the area and is vowing to deport the Haitians who have arrived illegally and is insisting that “our borders are not open.” But clearly the migrants don’t believe it, and with good reason. As a candidate and since taking office, Mr. Biden has given would-be migrants reason to believe that the chance to enter and work in the U.S. is worth the risk of the dangerous trip to the border. The massing of Haitians symbolizes how the migrants are now coming from across the Americas, and in many cases the world. 

The problem is the incentives of American policy. U.S. law, at least as interpreted by the courts, allows migrants to claim asylum even if they are coming solely for economic reasons. They can then be released into the U.S. to work until their asylum claims are heard by overwhelmed immigration judges. Once here they know they have access to healthcare, education for their children, and in some states Covid checks (up to $15,600 in New York).

READ ENTIRE WSJ EDITORIAL