Yesterday the Washington Post published another story about the surge of migrants crossing the border to claim asylum. The story makes it clear that the situation is spiraling out of control because of the sheer number of people the Border Patrol is trying to deal with:

Kevin McAleenan, the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said that for the first time in more than a decade, his agency is “reluctantly” performing direct releases of migrants, meaning they are not turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they are not detained, they are not given ankle bracelets to track their movements and they are allowed to leave with just a notice to appear in court at a later date.

He said that this is a “negative outcome” but that it is “the only current option we have” because of overcrowding at detention facilities as Central Americans stream to the border knowing they will be able to gain entry with asylum claims…

McAleenan said the agency detained more than 4,100 migrants Tuesday, the highest one-day total at the border in more than a decade, and agency projections have border apprehensions on pace to exceed 100,000 this month — an increase of more than 30 percent. By comparison, at the height of the last border crisis, in May 2014, agents apprehended more than 68,800 migrants that month…

Near where McAleenan spoke Wednesday, an improvised holding pen beneath a highway overpass is serving as a processing center. U.S. agents have been interviewing hundreds of parents and children in a dusty parking lot. Just before the commissioner began speaking, a group of nine parents and children from El Salvador and Panama traversed the Rio Grande, and agents led them to the processing center on foot.

So here’s AOC leaping into this story based on a photo of that “improvised holding pen.”

Look at this picture.

When you’re looking at this photo, you’re looking at a mirror. This is America. This is Texas. This is our the course of action, the one we chose.

I cannot and will not accept it.#EndFamilySeparation&#AbolishICE &#ReuniteFamilies &
Stop #BackersOfHate https://t.co/Srz3QioP5H

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 28, 2019

In just a few weeks the left has gone from mocking the idea there is a crisis at the border to waving scenes from that crisis like a bloody shirt. Neither position shows a lot of seriousness about the issue. At the start of the month, the Post reported that authorities saw this surge coming and were worried about it. Two weeks ago the paper had a story about the “conveyor belt” of migrants coming up from Central America on buses which could get them here in 72 hours instead of weeks. This is something new we haven’t seen before. Last week the Associated Press reported the Border Patrol was “overwhelmed” by waves of migrants. Yesterday, Sec. Nielsen said the entire system was close to a meltdown.

This situation in the photo is a shame and hopefully a very temporary one. But this isn’t holding a mirror up to America. This is not the “course of action…we chose.” That would be true if the Border Patrol were thrilled with how things are going but very clearly they are not. On the contrary, they are screaming about how desperate things are. Did AOC ever read the article associated with this picture or any of the other articles mentioned above? If she had, she would know this represents the system on the verge of collapse, not anyone’s vision of how things should be going.

And there’s a real irony here as well. What these people in the photo think about America is 180 degrees away from what AOC thinks of America. The real mirror to America is the waves of people desperate to come here for a better life for themselves and their children. That’s what’s driving this surge. That’s why we have this problem. But somehow, AOC missed all of that. All she sees is a dystopia.

As for the other specifics in her tweet, they are all false. ICE is not even involved in this as the story above makes clear, so abolishing ICE would do nothing to change this. Families are not being separated which is one reason regular holding cells are full and people are being quickly released. And most importantly, the Border Patrol agents doing a difficult job under impossible circumstances are not “backers of hate.” She should be ashamed of herself for saying so.

You get the definite impression she’s more interested in retweets from her fanbase than doing anything about this. Should we simply allow everyone who comes across the border to fan out into El Paso without making any attempt to control the situation? It sounds as if that’s what AOC wants to see happen. If so, why doesn’t she just say that? We know there’s a problem at the border you silly, socialist hothead. How is your attack on the people trying to deal with it helping anyone?