A Country Without Borders Isn’t
Isn’t a country, that is.
By making a priority of undoing anything Trump at our southern border, the Biden administration has created a horrific mess, creating the same human rights problems that Democrats decried. For example, over 4,000 immigrants are being held in Donna, Texas, at a facility designed for 250.
Biden announced his intention to provide a pathway for eventual citizenship for all of the approximately 11 million illegal aliens already in the country. In doing so, he unleashed a new flood tide of refugees heading north, many from Central America. His politically-motivated and thoughtless statement created a humanitarian crisis at the border.
More than 170,000 migrants were taken into custody at the U.S.-Mexico border in March, the highest monthly total since at least 2006, according to preliminary data obtained by the New York Times and Washington Post.
Trump used Title 42 of the United States Code that deals with public health to restrict migrants during the pandemic. Biden loosened a key portion of Trump’s policy he deemed inhumane: he opened the gates for unaccompanied minors. The easily-anticipated result: a flood of children at the border.
ABC News’ Cecilia Vega embarrassed Biden at his news conference when she recounted her meeting with a nine-year-old Honduran boy who had been sent north unaccompanied. Vega had called the boy’s mother who told Vega that she sent him north alone because she understood Biden would let him in.
Biden responded that the boy should be returned to his mother in Honduras. That was exactly the Trump policy that Democrats had termed inhumane and Biden had ended. Instead, the boy was being held in an overcrowded border detention facility – another Trump policy Democrats opposed – while government officials looked for a relative already in the country, probably illegal as well.
At his news conference, Biden claimed that family units are being turned back at the border. In fact, only 13 percent of family units were turned back at the border in a mid-March week.
Mexico had agreed to Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” program, keeping would-be immigrants on its side of the border until they had received U.S. approval. But with Biden’s implied “come one, come all” invitation, Mexico is unable to care for the new flood of immigrants. Instead, our Department of Homeland Security is waving across what used to be called our southern border; It’s unlikely that any of them will ever be deported.
For the last 25 years, federal law has prohibited “not qualified” (illegal) immigrants from receiving welfare benefits. Biden has announced that he would no longer enforce those laws. Instead, he’s offering them an armload of welfare benefits including free legal services and free health care.
Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman said, “It’s just obvious you can’t have free immigration and a welfare state.” Biden is testing Friedman’s statement using our tax dollars.
Belatedly recognizing the mess it created, the administration is finally saying, “Don’t come, our border is closed.” But its actions clearly send a different message: “If you get here, we’ve got a number of ways to allow you to stay and become a U.S. citizen.”
The extreme left now in control of Biden and the Democratic Party believes that anyone should be allowed to enter the U.S. at will and it is our collective responsibility to take care of them. Probably a billion of the world’s 7.9 billion people would jump at the chance to emigrate to the U.S. Would Democrats let them all in?
I’m with former Pres. Bill Clinton when he said, “We must say ‘no’ to illegal immigration so we can continue to say ‘yes’ to legal immigration.” He asked Congress for additional funding to “protect our borders, remove criminal aliens, reduce work incentives for illegal immigration [and] stop asylum abuse.”
In contrast, Biden will expand our welfare entitlement programs to support the flood of indigent illegal immigrants he’s invited to cross what used to be our southern border.
I’ve long supported a path to citizenship for “dreamers” who were brought here as young children by their parents. I’ve long supported the legal immigration encouraged by Pres. Clinton. But in contrast to progressive extremists, I strongly oppose encouraging illegal immigration.
Biden’s policies have effectively erased our southern border and is yet another manifestation of Democrats’ disrespect for the rule of law.
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