Less than two weeks after Senator Ted Cruz cosplayed as a tough guy, Representative Steve Scalise is the latest member to lead a clown show to try to deceive the American public and distract from their unanimous opposition to President Biden’s overwhelmingly popular, bipartisan agenda, after their previous attempts failed.

But what Scalise won’t say today at the border is that he and Republicans had four years to fix our immigration system — and yet the only thing they did was make it worse. They separated children from their parents, tried to end DACA, gutted asylum programs and attempted to pass legislation cutting legal immigration in half.

“For four years, Republicans like Steve Scalise were silent as Trump wrecked our immigration system and implemented cruel and inhumane policies. Now, while they’re desperately trying to distract the country with more grandstanding, President Biden is hard at work, rebuilding a broken system and restoring humanity and order. If Republicans were serious about solutions they’d be in Washington, working with President Biden.” – DNC spokesperson Ammar Moussa

Here’s the truth about what’s happening at the border:

THE TRUTH: There is no migrant “surge” due to Biden administration policies.

Washington Post: “We analyzed monthly U.S. Customs and Border Protection data from 2012 through February and found no clear evidence that the overall increase in border crossings in 2021 can be attributed to Biden administration policies. Rather, the current increase fits a pattern of seasonal changes in undocumented immigration combined with a backlog of demand because of 2020’s coronavirus border closure.”

Washington Post: “In other words, in fiscal year 2021, it appears that migrants are continuing to enter the United States in the same numbers as in fiscal year 2019 — plus the pent-up demand from people who would have come in fiscal year 2020, but for the pandemic.”

THE TRUTH: President Biden is working to repair the damage Trump caused to our immigration system.

CNN: “‘I can say quite clearly: Don’t come,’ Biden told ABC in an interview aired on Tuesday. The President continued: ‘We’re in the process of getting set up, don’t leave your town or city or community.’”

Council on Foreign Relations: “Still, the administration has inherited a migration system in crisis. The institutional capacity of immigration courts and other parts of the bureaucracy to humanely manage caseloads has eroded. It will take time and money to clear the backload of more than 1.2 million pending immigration cases and put back into place working asylum processes. The pandemic has made managing these flows and the containment of people all the harder.”

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: “Trumpists will claim this supposed Biden permissiveness is drawing more migrants relative to last year to make the trek. But Wendy Young, the president of Kids in Need of Defense, told me it’s far more complex than this.  Migration was suppressed last year during the pandemic, and arrivals are now rising due to many factors in Central America.”

THE TRUTH: For the past year, the border has been restricted due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Washington Post: “But many of those who live along the border in Texas say that while there has been a dramatic increase in the number of migrants caught crossing illegally, the border itself has been heavily restricted for nearly a year because of the coronavirus pandemic.”

THE TRUTH: The Biden administration has been requiring COVID tests and working to protect the American public. 

Houston Chronicle: “A negative coronavirus test is required by the federal government before entry to the U.S. While U.S. Customs and Border Protection conducts screenings, ‘suspected COVID-19 cases are referred to local health systems for appropriate testing, diagnosis, and treatment,’ the agency said in a statement.”

CNN: “Texas Gov. Abbott Stalled Federal Offer To Test Migrants Then Blamed Them For Spreading Covid.”

Austin American-Statesman: “Gov. Greg Abbott ends statewide mask mandate, moves to ‘open Texas 100%’ — actions at odds with health experts, federal officials”

THE TRUTH: Many of the migrant children at the border came during the Trump administration.

Jennifer Podkul, Vice President of Kids in Need of Defense: “[T]hese aren’t brand new cases of people setting out for the U.S. … These are kids who’ve been waiting at the border, in some cases for more than a year.”