Open borders have moved from a gamble to wanton recklessness.

Last December, I wrote a piece outlining the dangerous gamble the Biden administration seemed to be taking by allowing an unprecedented level of illegal immigration.

“There are many reasons why a secure border is critically important for the U.S. The lack of a secure border amplifies the devastating impacts of illegal drug smuggling and the associated fentanyl overdose crisis, human trafficking, the spread of infectious disease, census inaccuracies, voter fraud, identity theft, and the unsustainable drain on our social service, medical, educational, and criminal justice resources.

All these reasons pale in comparison to the national security threat that an open border creates in the form of a terrorist attack from within or, even more nefariously, through a slow subversion of our systems, our infrastructure, our resources, our independence, our culture — all of which are susceptible to the actions of an adversary, be it a terror cell or nation-state.”

Given the events in Israel this past weekend, the Biden administration’s open border policy has crossed over from being a dangerous gamble to deliberate recklessness.

When we were attacked on 9/11/2001, we were surprised that 19 men could enter our country on student visas and pull off such a terrible terrorist attack against us.

22 years later, we are told over 7 million people from 200 countries entering our country illegally are not a threat to our safety. In fact, expressing concern with this in 2023 gets you labeled a “xenophobe.”

It’s beyond bizarre.

This week the world has once again been surprised by the barbaric actions of Islamist terrorists who carried out coordinated attacks in Israel, killing over 1,000 in a single day and kidnapping several hundred more.

To put the carnage in proper perspective, the Hamas attack on Israeli citizens this past weekend killed Israeli citizens at a rate 13 times greater than the rate Al-Qaida terrorists killed US citizens on 9/11. This is the new scale our adversaries are operating on.

Does anyone believe our adversaries won’t try to take advantage of our current open border policy? Shame on us if we find ourselves once again reacting to attacks from within. Given the massive numbers who have infiltrated our borders, it seems to be a tragic inevitability.

It’s frustrating how complacent we are — like a tragic slow-motioned car wreck developing before our eyes, which we seem unwilling to avoid.

As recent as 2020, it was shown that illegal border crossings could be blunted through strong policy messaging and firm enforcement at the border.

We need to wake up and wake up quickly. History will not be kind to the failures of this administration, the people who put them there, or the rest who sat on their hands disbelieving it could ever happen again.