Read TODD BENSMAN’s utterly surreal story of the cynical Joe’s bizarre struggle to save the MUSSELS in the open sewer that is the illegal migrant crossing of the Rio Grande and ask: Have you ever heard of such stinking hypocrisy?

For nearly 30 months, the White House’s soft border policies have lured millions of foreigners to the U.S. border with Mexico and the banks of Rio Grande — where they dumped their trash.

Near sprawling migrant camps, long stretches of the river have become foul-smelling, garbage-clogged sewers, filled with human feces and choked with invasive plants.

But until last month, no U.S. government agency or environmental group said much more than a peep about it.

Now President Joe Biden’s administration is suddenly sounding the environmental alarm.

On July 24, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service issued a cry for help to save the Mexican Fawnsfoot, a riverbed mussel that lives in the Rio Grande.

They propose extending the protections of the Endangered Species Act to the humble mollusk.

Why now?

For decades, environmentalists have been begging the government to do something to save the Fawnsfoot.

Well, the White House would have you believe that they care deeply about the health of the Rio Grande and the poor bivalves.

I don’t believe it for a second.

This is a cynical ‘shell’ game.

Coincidentally, some of the remaining populations of Mexican Fawnsfoot burrow into the mud near one of the most trafficked illegal immigrant crossings on the entire Rio Grande.

Burning garbage in a migrant camp in Matamoros, Mexico

In an area of ​​Brownsville, Texas, across from Matamoros, I walked on a rancid, spongy cushion so thick that local National Guardsmen called the area “the mattress.”

It is here, across from Eagle Pass, Texas, that Governor Gregg Abbott installed the first 300 meters of a floating seawall to prevent migrants from entering the US from Mexico.

Illegal immigrant advocates, the Mexican government and the Biden administration are in the middle of an all-or-nothing legal, propaganda and political campaign to force Texas to remove the barrier and abandon state plans to move it miles downriver expand.

If all else fails, a declaration of endangered species and a lawsuit would certainly threaten Abbott’s border security measures.

Too cynical, you say?

Remember, for years I have witnessed the ecological devastation wrought by relentless illegal immigration.

I’ll tell you what really kills the clams, Biden’s border policy, but no environmentalist will ever say that out loud.

See the sprawling, makeshift migrant slums, such as those in the Mexican border towns of Reynosa and Matamoros, Mexico.

Here, rotting garbage flows in scattered heaps of tons straight into the Rio Grande. Water bottles, food wrappers, discarded bags and all sorts of rubbish litter the riverbanks.

Here, rotting garbage flows in scattered heaps of tons straight into the Rio Grande. Water bottles, food wrappers, discarded bags and all sorts of rubbish litter the riverbanks.

I’ll tell you what really kills the clams, Biden’s border policy, but no environmentalist will ever say that out loud.

It is here, across from Eagle Pass, Texas, that Governor Gregg Abbott installed the first 300 meters of a floating seawall to prevent migrants from entering the US from Mexico.

Remember, for years I have witnessed the ecological devastation wrought by relentless illegal immigration.

It is also here that thousands of immigrants empty their bowels directly into the water every day. Therefore, few dare to drink from the river itself.

The man-made fertilizer feeds invasive hyacinth plants that choke water flow and deprive native aquatic species of oxygen and sunlight.

The river may not have been so abused since the advent of industrialized agriculture.

Of course, mass immigration didn’t introduce the hyacinth to the Rio Grande, but I’m willing to bet that the spread of the riverweed near migrant camps is no coincidence.

It’s hard to believe that mussels – or anything else – could survive under the firm mats of this nosy species from Brazil.

And speaking of suffocating mats, on the U.S. side of the border, tens of thousands of immigrants fresh from their river crossings strip off their soaking wet clothes and drop them to the ground, creating suffocating blankets over the riparian habitat.

The shirts, shorts, pants and baby diapers are mixed with abandoned medicines, syringes, animal feces and other non-biodegradable junk.

Sure, mass immigration hasn’t introduced the hyacinth (pictured above, outside of Matamoros) to the Rio Grande, but I’d wager the spread of the riverweed near migrant camps isn’t a coincidence.

The shirts, shorts, pants and baby diapers are mixed with abandoned medicines, syringes, animal feces and other non-biodegradable junk.

On July 24, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service issued a cry for help to save the Mexican Fawnsfoot (pictured above), a riverbed mussel that lives in the Rio Grande.

In an area of ​​Brownsville, Texas, across from Matamoros, I walked on a rancid, spongy cushion so thick that local National Guardsmen called the area “the mattress.”

Not to mention the countless immigrants, who trudge up and down shallow parts of the river, leaving deep underwater tracks stripped of any living creature.

When mussels are in the mud, only their crushed shells are left as evidence.

Where were Fish & Wildlife and groups like the Sierra Club when this started?

They were nowhere to be found, having abandoned their mission and been co-opted by a Democratic Party determined to open the gates of America to all.

This week, a senior Texas law enforcement official told me that no migrant has been near the 300-foot buoy that spans the river at Eagle Pass since it was installed.

‘No one is talking about it. No one goes under,” the official said. “I’d like another two miles of it.”

If President Biden really wanted to stop the mussel kill and restore the Rio Grande, he would order more river barriers. But he doesn’t.

Despite hand-wringing over endangered species, these cynical, open-border liberals are Mexico’s Fawnsfoots’ worst enemy.