President Joe Biden has unleashed anarchy and sickness at the United States’ southern border. This would be only regrettable and sad if it were the result of some unfortunate series of events, a freak accident, or honest mistakes. But the Biden administration intentionally created this crisis at the border—they actually envisioned this madness and began to implement this horror from the first days of Joe Biden's presidency.
[W]hen these migrants test positive for coronavirus, it is the height of folly to then allow them to travel and infect legal residents of America.
The border crisis has seen a flood of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. who are sometimes infected with COVID-19. They are not being apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), not being deported, and are then proceeding to get aboard buses and leave for parts unknown.
Of all the left-wing policies that President Biden has promoted during the first months of his presidency, his immigration and border policies have been the first to demonstrate the bankruptcy of his ideas and the danger that he poses to the country. Biden can decry “Neanderthal thinking” behind the desire of some states to reopen their economies, and allow their citizens greater freedom to choose where and when to wear a face mask, but just who is the Neanderthal here? It is neither rational nor safe to negate border security and allow illegal immigrants to enter the country who, by their very presence, are demonstrating that the United States has no borders. Furthermore, when these migrants test positive for coronavirus, it is the height of folly to then allow them to travel and infect legal residents of America.
What’s more, this insanity is not about pursuing a more humanitarian attitude at the border or creating an immigration system that works better. It is about Biden’s ego and his hatred of former President Donald Trump. It is about the current President’s manic desire to eliminate every vestige of Trump’s legacy—even when that legacy includes policies and programs that were efficacious, which they certainly were when it came to immigration.
Before examining just how bleak is the border crisis, it is essential to understand that President Biden has made it that way. The President is exhibiting the political equivalent of self-harm, deliberately slashing at America’s border security by creating a situation that is desultory at best, not to mention demonstrably dangerous.
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Migrants.[/caption]
PRESIDENT BIDEN'S IMMIGRATION ROLLBACK
President Biden ordered the construction of the border wall to cease within a week of his inauguration. Trump did not get the wall completed during his presidency, but he did make significant progress—despite continuous attempts by Congress to cut off funding for the project. It is a wonder that Biden has yet to order the complete removal of the structure.
The President has also decided that “irregular migration” (a phrase right out of talking point hell) can be defeated, not by strict control of entrants at the border, but by alleviating the problems in foreign countries that compel migrants to make the journey illegally into the U.S. in the first place. Just how does Biden intend to solve the problems of Mexico, Central America, and goodness where else? He’s in no position to bring political or social change to the world. But he is, unfortunately, in a position to radically change America’s immigration policy, and he is doing that.
President Biden has also brought all of the “asylum seekers” waiting in Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) into the United States. The policy, better known as the “Remain-in-Mexico” policy, has kept illegal immigrants across the border while their asylum cases are reviewed rather than releasing them into the United States. Biden indicated at the beginning of February that he wants the program to end.
The “Remain-in-Mexico” policy was negotiated by the Trump administration in January 2019. It was designed to ensure that “foreign individuals entering or seeking admission to the U.S. from Mexico—illegally or without proper documentation—may be returned to Mexico and wait outside of the U.S. for the duration of their immigration proceedings, where Mexico will provide them with all appropriate humanitarian protections for the duration of their stay.”
But it is almost irrelevant as to whether that policy remains, or is quietly extinguished by the Biden administration because, clearly, no one is remaining in Mexico, and the border appears open.
When policy mandated that illegal migrants stay in Mexico while their claims were assessed, it was impossible for them to flee into the United States, and, if carrying COVID-19, to infect Americans. But the “catch-and-release” immigration policy is back with a vengeance. The Trump administration had previously ended the practice of apprehending illegal immigrants as they cross the border, and then releasing them into local communities. Mayor Chris Riggs from Gila Bend, AZ, recently declared his outrage when he was informed that illegal aliens would be dropped off in his community and was told, “They’re your problem.”
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Migrants.[/caption]
THE TWO-FOLD CRISIS AT THE BORDER: UNACCOMPANIED CHILDREN AND COVID-19
In February, Customs and Border Protection encountered 100,441 border crossers, a 28% increase over the previous month. Of those, 19,246 individuals were in family units; 9,457 were unaccompanied children, and 71,598 were single adults.
If there’s no crisis, why did Mayorkas order the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to assist in a "government-wide effort" to house child migrants...
White House Press Secretary Jen Paski has admitted this amounts to a “large flow” of child migrants. "We certainly also recognize because the President and our administration has made a decision that the way to humanely approach immigration is to allow for unaccompanied children to come and be treated with humanity and be in a safe place while we’re... trying to get them into homes and sponsors homes that some more may have come to our border," Psaki said at March news conference. "And there have been, of course, a large flow of children across the border, we recognize that—but we made a policy decision because we felt it was the humane approach."
The denial of a crisis by the Biden administration is massive news, and was echoed by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who flatly denied that there is any “crisis” occurring at the southern border when a reporter asked him after a White House briefing if he would define the situation at the border as a crisis. Crisis? What crisis? Mayorkas preferred to use that ultimate weasel word and call the situation “challenging,” as if this were no more an ordeal than getting the family organized for a trip to the beach. "The men and women of the Department of Homeland Security are working around the clock seven days a week to ensure that we do not have a crisis at the border—that we manage the challenge, as acute as the challenge is," Mayorkas said. "All understand it is imperative. Everyone understand[s] what occurred before us and what we need to do now… And we are getting it done."
Just what is he getting done? Even when faced with the actual numbers that indicate escalating numbers of unaccompanied child migrants, Mayorkas doesn’t appear to comprehend the situation in a realistic manner, either in terms of the flood at the border or in his suggestion that the cascading trove of illegal immigrants do their best to take their time crossing the border. "They need to wait," Mayorkas added. "If they come, if families come, if single adults come to the border, we are obligated to, in the service of public health, including the health of the very people thinking of coming, to impose travel restrictions under CDC guidelines and return them to Mexico—and we have done that."
If there’s no crisis, why did Mayorkas order the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to assist in a "government-wide effort" to house child migrants—as numbers of child migrants continue to spike. The agency has been asked to "safely receive, shelter and transfer unaccompanied children" walking across the border into the United States. The order noted the "record number of individuals, including unaccompanied children, at the southwest border."
But are these illegal immigrants bringing COVID-19 into the United States?
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, one of those governors on the receiving end of Biden’s “Neanderthal” comment, says yes. "The Biden administration was spreading COVID in South Texas yesterday because of their lack of constraint of testing and quarantining people who come across the border illegally," Abbott said. "The Biden administration was exposing Texans to COVID. That is a Neanderthal-type approach to dealing with the COVID situation."
The White House can dismiss this comment, but it honestly hasn’t a clue one way or the other because it is not testing the migrants. Instead, they are relying on local health units to do that -- if the migrants report.
Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX) sounded an alarm about the Rio Grande Valley, where illegals often cross the border undetected. He says the situation is alarming. "Over 10,000 people have come in through the lower Rio Grande Valley. Those folks are not being tested," Cuellar says, "I did ask border patrol from the very beginning: 'Are y’all testing?' They said 'no, we’re not testing.'”
Since Biden became president, more than 100 illegal immigrants tested positive for COVID-19, but were released into the local community. There are probably many more.
That interaction between a Democratic congressman and Customs and Border Protection illustrates just how nebulous the testing policy is. The federal government is expecting state and local governments along with non-governmental organizations to do the testing, but is apparently not following-up on whether this is actually being done on some or all of the migrants. Since Biden became president, more than 100 illegal immigrants tested positive for COVID-19, but were released into the local community. There are probably many more.
Brownsville, Texas spokesman Felipe Romero reported that he was aware of 108 cases: 6.3% of those rapid-tested at the city’s bus terminal. He noted that neither he nor any other official in the city can force those infected into quarantine or to go back across the border. They are powerless to stop these individuals from traveling anywhere they want in the United States, most likely to never be seen again.
Former ICE director Tom Homan, who served from January 2017 to June 2018 during the Trump administration, has said that Americans have “the right to demand” knowledge of whether illegal immigrants have COVID-19, and where they are going in the United States when they are released. He claimed that local community assessments have found that 6.3% of migrants have tested positive for the coronavirus in Brownsville, Texas, and 13.8% in Cameron County, Texas.
Under President Joe Biden’s non-deportation rules, immigrants can’t be deported if they get a DUI, commit fraud, tax crimes, or assault, Fox News reported in early February, noting that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will be stood down. A federal judge in January overruled the non-deportation policy after Texas sought an injunction, stating that not deporting people was a violation of federal law and a potential cost to the state. Biden first proposed the 100-day moratorium on deportations during the 2020 presidential campaign as a symbolic way of repudiating the Trump administration’s aggressive posture on border control. It placed a temporary ban on all deportations, except when the individual was accused of terrorism or espionage.
During a Fox News interview, however, Homan said that the Biden administration is “circumventing the judge’s order” by telling ICE officers to stop arresting illegals or releasing them into local communities. “What kind of message does that send to the rest of the world?” Homan asked. “If you come to the country illegally, if you can get past the border patrol, don’t commit an aggravated felony, and you’re home free. You get to stay because ICE is not looking for you. It’s no longer illegal to be here illegally,” he added.
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Migrant camp.[/caption]
“AN OPEN BORDERS RALLYING CRY”
President Biden’s borders policies are also benefiting another group that has been quick to exploit the chaos: the Mexican drug cartels. The cartels can find a profit in any illegal activity, no matter how sick or how exploitive, and they are making a killing from the border crisis. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” on March 14th. Cornyn had just returned from a fact-finding trip to the border. He said, “What people need to understand is these [cartels] are criminal organizations: they trade in things that make them money, whether it’s trafficking and sex, women, and children for sex, whether it’s drugs, illegal drugs… which killed 70,000 Americans just in the last couple of years on an annual basis.”
Biden and the leftist Democrats are always promising amnesty for the 11 million illegal immigrants already in the country.
Cornyn went on to describe the price list of people smuggling that begins at about $4,000 for those in Mexico and escalates to $15,000 and more for those whose illegal immigration journey begins in Europe or elsewhere. “It’s tragic … and it’s heartbreaking and it’s completely preventable,” Stephen Miller, a former advisor to President Donald Trump, told “Fox & Friends.” “We had a policy in place when we left to safely and humanely return illegal immigrant minors to their families in their home countries. It saved lives. It kept children safe, and it put coyotes and smugglers out of business,” Miller said.
Miller maintained that allowing children to enter the United States and be removed to a holding center “sends thousands and thousands and thousands more minors into the hands of cartels, coyotes, and smugglers where they will be horribly abused.”
Clearly, ideology underlines this policy. Biden and the leftist Democrats are always promising amnesty for the 11 million illegal immigrants already in the country. That would be a substantial base of support for the Democratic Party. But what if, as Fox News host Tucker Carlson recently pointed out, the number is much higher than that? As high as 20 million or 30 million? That would constitute the equivalent electoral support of a number of states.
There has been a myriad of examples of totalitarian regimes driving irrational, destructive policies to conform to—or hope to confirm—an illusionary ideological agenda. And though it is a rare find in the democratic world, Joe Biden and the acolytes of open borders are certainly charting new ground with an enthusiasm, naivete, and effervescence that is as frightening as it is frustrating. While the President can have his Hillary Clinton “deplorable” moments, and dismiss anti-lockdown Americans as cavemen, his apparent inability to grasp the deadly seriousness of the situation and the health risks that he is imposing on the American people is either the result of his being an obdurate old man or perhaps one given to chimeric policy pronouncements.
While Biden clearly envisioned the first 100 days of his presidency to be reminiscent of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, he has demonstrated a detachment from reality and produced a plethora of policies that have not just demolished the legacy of former President Trump but are unraveling the fabric of America itself. Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA), in a letter to the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship, called Biden’s policies “an open borders rallying cry,” and the surge at the border would seem to indicate that.
Or, as Sen. Ted Cruz recently tweeted: “Joe Biden halted wall construction, implemented catch-and-release, rescinded Trump era-policies to control entry, dismantled enforcement and deportations all while promising amnesty for illegal aliens. Instead of having a handle on the situation, Biden created a crisis.”
A country cannot pretend to be sovereign when its borders are ignored, and it cannot even regulate who is entering the country infected with COVID-19. Make no mistake: this is a crisis. And it is a crisis so broad and so bleak that it could well be the lasting legacy of a Biden administration that increasingly seems to be a captive to some lunatic fringe of the Democratic Party.
