Joe Biden’s open border policy is predicated on the oft-touted idea that it’s more compassionate than Donald Trump’s wall. By contrast to that wall and the enforcement it symbolized — which indeed was aimed at preventing illegal aliens from entering the country — Biden’s policy has been interpreted as a giant flashing welcome sign. As a result, the number of migrants caught illegally crossing the border has skyrocketed to records not seen in over two decades, as more than 1.4 million people have been detained just since Biden took office.

While Trump’s rhetoric may have been offensive to the Left, his enforcement policies led to decreasing numbers of migrants seeking to make the treacherous journey. Meanwhile, Afghanistan isn’t the only place where people are dying because of Biden’s policies. His “compassionate” rhetoric has ironically led to record numbers of migrants dying in their attempts to illegally cross the southern border.

Since the 2020 election, U.S. Border Patrol has found the bodies of 383 dead migrants, with likely many more unaccounted for in the remote desert regions along the U.S. southern border with Mexico. The Border Patrol notes that if the trend continues, the number of dead migrants is on pace to surpass 2005, the worst year on record. As The Washington Times reports: “August and September, the final two months of the fiscal year, usually account for 22% to 30% of the total. If this year is closer to 30%, then 2021 will end with more deaths than the 492 recorded in 2005.”

The more people that come, the more people will die. Former Border Patrol chief Ronald Vitiello flatly observed, “It’s all based on the volume. We’ve gone to unprecedented heights in attempted entries. There are more people dying on the way, there are more people dying at the border, there’s more risk to the people coming.”

Trump told migrants not to come — not to even try — because they would be turned away. Biden, on the other hand, intentionally ignored the significant distinction between legal and illegal immigration when he falsely implied that Trump was heartlessly opposed to immigration. Biden’s conflation served as an open invitation to migrants to illegally come and seek to enter the U.S. And this disingenuous conflation is costing more migrant lives than Trump’s hardline enforcement policies. Compassion not guided by truth ends in cruelty.