Senior Border Patrol officials are warning of a surge in illegal migration at the southern border in recent weeks, coming directly in response to perceived results of the still-pending presidential election.

Acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan is ascribing a 21% increase in apprehension levels at the border over the last month to both economic circumstances in Central America and “perceived and or anticipated shifts in policies” following the November 3rd election. Morgan was speaking to the Washington Times.

CBP personnel intercepted 69,000 illegal migrants at the southern border in October, up from 58,000 in September.

Illegal immigration levels declined in early 2020 due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, but they’ve increased in recent months as border crossers flee the effects of the virus’s recession in Central America and Mexico. CBP has been authorized by the Trump administration to use expedited “expulsion” policies to return illegal immigrants to the nation they came from on the basis of coronavirus public health concerns.

Joe Biden has pledged to open the borders of the United States, stating that he intends only to deport felons convicted of violent crimes while in the country illegally. This repudiation of immigration enforcement, if actually adopted, would likely lure tens of millions- if not hundreds of millions- of unauthorized migrants to the United States in various forms in coming years.

Biden has also pledged to grant American citizenship to more than 11 million illegal aliens present in the United States. This proposal would require the cooperation of Congress, but he can reinstate the DACA amnesty program through executive action.

Asylum seekers camped out in the Mexican border city of Matamoros reportedly celebrated Biden’s perceived victory, eager for a chance to obtain access to the United States’ welfare, public education, healthcare and infrastructure.

Illegal immigration and cheap labor advocates have claimed that porous borders are an inevitability, but the contrast between President Trump’s immigration enforcement and the ramifications from the mere international perception of a Joe Biden administration seems to suggest otherwise.