It is only a crisis if and when Liberals can exploit it. So they have known that it was a crisis all along. It just wasn’t to their advantage to admit it and I’d be very suspicious when they suddenly discover a crisis that has existed all along.
I personally think the socialists created this asylum scam flood of people to make Trump look bad to his voters. I think they are trying to use this to force open borders. No downside for them, as you say they want votes.