Spain is currently finding out what happens when your border security plan consists of hoping really hard that nobody notices the giant holes in your fence. Tens of thousands of Moroccan migrants stormed into Ceuta, a Spanish city on the North African coast, and the White House wasted approximately zero seconds before issuing the geopolitical equivalent of "told ya so," as Trending Politics reported.
The official White House statement said President Trump had repeatedly cautioned Europe about the consequences of pursuing "far-left, globalist policies" that enable mass migration. The statement urged Spain and similarly minded nations to "immediately reverse course or risk their own demise." Subtle stuff, really. Very diplomatic.
So how did we get here? Over the previous week, roughly 1,500 people had reached Ceuta, mostly by swimming from Morocco, according to local leader Juan Jesús Vivas. But Thursday was apparently "bring a friend" day, because Spanish state television TVE put the count at 2,000 to 3,000 additional crossings in a single day. Most were young men from Morocco who used inflatable inner tubes to paddle around a breakwater or simply walked through gaps in the border fencing. You know, the fencing that was supposed to be a barrier.
Rachid Sbihi, who leads the association representing Civil Guard officers in Ceuta, said the border had "totally collapsed" and described the scene as "absolute chaos." National Police and Civil Guard members reported being "overwhelmed," with one officer saying they were "one step away from operational collapse." That is police speak for "we are in deep trouble and nobody is picking up the phone."
Spanish police and Guardia Civil unions estimated that around 12,000 people were crossing every hour, with possibly up to 80,000 already on the other side. A Guardia Civil spokesperson went so far as to accuse Morocco's government of launching a proxy attack on Spain. That is quite the accusation to toss across the Mediterranean.
Vivas called the situation "a total humanitarian and social emergency" and noted that facilities for unaccompanied minors were way past capacity. He begged Madrid to declare a national emergency, send reinforcements, and deploy the military. The Interior Ministry responded with a plan that can only be described as adorably insufficient: three platoons of 20 soldiers each, one diving unit, a military vessel, and enough special police to bring the grand total to 200 personnel. Two hundred. Against potentially 80,000.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, whose administration recently granted amnesty to millions of migrants, assured everyone that his government was "fully committed" to providing an immediate response. He promised to mobilize all necessary resources while coordinating with Moroccan and international authorities to "restore normalcy as soon as possible." Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry clarified that it could not declare a formal national emergency solely over migration, which is the bureaucratic version of watching your house burn while explaining that the fire department only responds to structural fires.
Somewhere in Washington, one imagines a very smug press secretary hitting send on that statement with zero hesitation.
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