Over the last several years, liberals have been casting about seeking a term for immigrants who enter the country illegally that does not mention the fact that such people are guilty of illegal immigration. At various times, "undocumented immigrant," "asylum seekers," "migrants," and others have enjoyed their day in the sun. Now the government official charged with stopping illegal immigration is floating a new term, but the early returns suggest that this one may not be around long.

In a Saturday tweet that implausibly celebrated the government's efforts at restricting illegal immigration, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas claimed that the government is cracking down on what he called "irregular migration," by which he apparently meant illegal immigration.

The United States, and our partners across the region, are continuing to enforce consequences for irregular migration, including direct repatriation flights to Venezuela. @ICEgov conducted another repatriation flight to Venezuela this week, as did the Government of Mexico.

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Mayorkas also claimed that the government "continues" to enforce its immigration laws by repatriating these so-called "irregular migrants" back to their country of origin, allegedly with the help of countries like Mexico and Venezuela.

Mayorkas' new term was not exactly met with applause among commenters on the internet. "So a bank robbery is now an irregular withdrawal?" quipped one respondent.

The reality, as noted even by liberal cable network CNN, is that the border is currently witnessing its largest surge of illegal immigration in over two decades, as over 225,000 illegal immigrants were encountered by border authorities this month alone, making it the highest monthly total recorded since at least 2000. The mayors of Chicago, Denver and New York City, which used to proudly proclaim themselves as sanctuary cities until border states began forcing them to share the burden of accommodating these surges of so-called "irregular migration" have issued public pleas to the Biden Administration, saying that the cost of providing legally-required services to the "irregular migrants" are breaking their cities' budgets.

"We cannot continue to do the federal government’s job. We have spoken to FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and other federal officials who have expressed concern about the border surge, but not offered additional help. We need action and we need it now," said New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Far left-wing Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson echoed that sentiment in a video message, pleading that, "All of our cities have reached a point where we are either close to capacity, or nearly out of room. Without significant intervention from the federal government, this mission will not be sustained."

These mayors have also criticized border governors like Texas' Greg Abbott for refusing to shoulder this entire burden and busing immigrants to their cities. Abbott, for his part, has attempted to slow the surge by directing Texas authorities to erect barriers on the border, but these efforts have been fought strenuously both in court and in person by Mayorkas and DHS.