Without question, the most asked question about this administration’s actions during its first six months is this: “What is the purpose for the unfettered waving-in of illegals across our southern border?” When you add the fact that approximately 1 million have shown up at the border — that we know about — to the OTHER fact that there is NO COVID-19 testing of these illegals by the Biden folks, PLUS the news that most of these illegals are ferried in the dark of night to towns and cities around the country and summarily released, what the heck is President Biden thinking?
I get stuck on the very first and most important factor in this process: They’re coming to our nation illegally! And the Biden Administration is encouraging it.
The Law
All persons residing in the U.S. are supposed to fall into three categories: a U.S. citizen, those with a Green Card permanent resident status, or temporary inhabitants with Visitor or Student Visas.
The Biden folks radically promote that there are 10-12 million illegal residents. Using a more sophisticated methodology, professors from MIT and Yale estimated in September 2018 that as many as 22.1 million undocumented aliens could be in the U.S. They came to three conclusions: 10-12 million is no longer viable. Immigration experts say there are at least 16 million illegals here, and more likely that number is over 20 million. One thing is for certain, we do not know who they are or where they reside.
A nation that cannot secure its borders against drug traffic, criminals, gangs, human trafficking, and illegal aliens has a serious national security problem. There’s that old border adage: “A nation without borders is NOT a nation.”
President Trump worked on this issue and managed to bring it under reasonable control. But the Democrats promised to reverse all of those gains. Why? Democrats see illegal aliens in general and Hispanics in particular as a valuable voting bloc.
In a press briefing at the end of his presidency, President Trump outlined 42 things Biden will do if elected. Nineteen of them had to do with immigration:
- Abolish immigration detention.
- Stop all deportation.
- End prosecution of illegal border crossers.
- Support the deadly sanctuary cities.
- Incentivize illegal alien child smuggling.
- Expand asylum for all new illegal aliens.
- Cancel all asylum cooperation agreements with Honduras, Guatemala, with El Salvador.
- Taxpayer-funded lawyers will be given to all illegal aliens.
- Abolish immigration enforcement against illegal workers.
- Restore Catch and Release policies for illegals.
- Grant work permits for illegal aliens.
- Provide taxpayer subsidies and welfare for illegal aliens and new immigrants.
- Federal Student Aid and free community college for illegal aliens.
- Sign new immigrants up for welfare immediately.
- End requirement for immigrants’ self-sufficiency and maximize their welfare.
- End all travel bans, including from jihadist regions.
- Grant mass amnesty.
- Vastly expand low-skilled immigration to the United States.
- Increase refugee admissions by 700 percent.
The fact-checkers — Democrats and mainstream media — went crazy, saying nothing in Biden’s platform said he would take those actions. The truth is now obvious: though it appeared Biden as president would not open the illegal floodgates at the southern border, leaders in the Democrat Party quickly changed that. Already a million illegals have been apprehended at the border. Just imagine how many slipped in.
For decades the Democrat Party has been synonymous with “Identity Politics,” particularly Black American voters. For a decade or so, Democrats have seen the illegal alien Hispanic community as a new political identity target. In 2016 Hillary Clinton ran on a platform promoting “a pathway to citizenship.”
Trump’s 2016 victory was a huge setback for the Democrats’ plans for two reasons. Immigration reform was an over-arching issue in Trump’s campaign, and it was the exact opposite of what the Democrats intended to do. Secondly, Trump not only campaigned on stopping the continuous flow of illegal immigrants, drugs, criminals, terrorists, and human trafficking, he immediately set out to fix it.
Biden’s 14-page campaign platform on immigration was littered with soft language and propaganda. For example: “Biden will move immediately to ensure that the U.S. meets its responsibilities as a nation of immigrants.” He said he would “End prolonged detention.” That is code for catch-and-release, which was the Obama/Biden centerpiece and the reason we now have over 20 million illegals. Then there is, “End the mismanagement of the asylum system.” More catch-and-release. “Welcome immigrants to our communities.” That is to say, “Amnesty for All.” The one thing his website did NOT say was how he would reduce illegal immigration. Six months into his presidency, we now know why: he had NO intention to stop it!
Let’s be clear about what is happening with Biden on immigration. As pointed out, there is soft language in his printed platform, and then there are the direct answers to questions during rare occasions when the media are questioning him.
During the Democrat primaries, there was open dialogue concerning “Support for eliminating criminal penalties for entering the country illegally.” That Democrat Party position is a euphemism for open borders. Why don’t they just come clean and say, “We Democrats are for open borders?”
During a recent interview, Biden was asked if he would introduce immigration reform legalizing millions of undocumented immigrants promptly after assuming office. “I already have the bill,” Biden said. And, he continued, “I will get it done in the first week.” There it is, amnesty, pure and simple. In that interview, Biden went on to say, “illegal immigrants should have access to the same health benefits everyone else has.” Biden missed his promised date for that bill. But there’s plenty of time for it IF Democrats can maintain control of Congress.
From fiscal years 2017 to 2019, Homeland Security reports that ICE agents arrested and eventually deported around 205,000 convicted criminals and about 36,000 immigrants with pending criminal charges. Over that same period, ICE deported around 17,000 known or suspected gang members and 145 known or suspected terrorists. Biden promised to “limit ICAE’s ability to deport criminals.” He certainly has kept that promise.
Doing the math on the 258,000 deportees cited above, over a 24-month period, would be the average deportation of 353 nasty folks a day. So, when Biden emphatically declared he “Would not deport a single soul in his first 100 days in office,” that’s about 35,000 criminals that are still in our neighborhoods but shouldn’t be.
What is the intellectual point about opening our border wide open? Was it a Biden signal that deportations may be eliminated? Given that he has reversed every gain made during the Trump presidency, that “open border” possibility seems to be a valid happening.
Amnesty
“Amnesty-for-all” is not only a slap in the face to the millions of upstanding citizens who worked through the immigration system legally, but the long-term ramifications of amnesty-for-all are unthinkable. Once amnesty-for-all is initiated, that precedent becomes a powerful force.
Democrats know that government change in a dramatic fashion seldom occurs. If Biden successfully implements “Amnesty-for-All,” it is highly likely that amnesty-for-all will become the norm in the future every time Democrats control the government.
There are about 47 million Hispanic citizens in the U.S. plus another 20 million illegals. Politically, this is the holy grail for the Democrats. Democrats foresee a dynasty in power for years to come to get a stronghold in this Hispanic identity group. The complete revamp of the immigration system in the nineteen immigration initiatives outlined above by President Trump will certainly do just that.
It’s impossible not to take a swipe at Speaker Pelosi. How many dozens of times did she lecture during the Trump Administration, saying, “No one is above the law.” I’m suggesting she needs to modify that as follows: “No one is above the law except the millions of illegal aliens living among us.”
How Do Americans Feel About Biden’s Border “Crisis?”
On no other issue has President Biden lost the country’s faith as quickly and thoroughly as immigration, where Americans tell pollsters they not only find his strategy lacking, but they actually yearn for a return to the Trump days.
A series of polls show the public sides with security experts, border-region law enforcement, and Border Patrol agents who say what’s going on at the border is a crisis. Biden’s ditching of Trump policies fostered it.
In an Economist/YouGov poll taken in late June, just 16% sided with Biden in rejecting the “crisis” label, including just 27% of self-identified Democrats. And of those who called the situation a crisis, a strong majority saw it as an immigration, security, or crime crisis, rejecting the Biden administration’s attempt to portray it as a humanitarian situation.
Most striking was a Harvard CAPS-Harris poll, also from late June, that found most voters think former President Donald Trump’s policies should have been left “in place,” and the two-thirds of voters who said Biden’s executive actions had encouraged illegal immigration.
“People are basically saying they’re not with the president on immigration,” said Alfonso Aguilar, who ran the Office of Citizenship in the Bush administration and now runs the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles. “They’ve seen there’s a major shift with immigration policy with this administration and the Democratic Congress, and they don’t like what they see.”
Immigration support is dismal. A Morning Consult/Politico survey late last month found 40% approval of his handling of that issue, compared to 48% disapproval.
Whatever President Biden’s stumbles at the border, it does not appear to have the fundamental dynamic of a country increasingly more open to immigration and leniency for those already in the country without permission.
The Economist/YouGov poll found 72% still ascribe to the sentiment that the U.S. is “a nation of immigrants,” with just 15% disagreeing. Surprisingly, the most resistant to the idea were younger adults, ages 18-29, where just 54% agreed with the sentiment.
Polling has long shown the public wants better border security.
A Harvard-Harris poll taken in September, amid the presidential campaign, found about three-fourths of those surveyed wanted to see the border tightened and wanted to see undocumented immigrants who commit crimes deported.
Another striking feature of the Harvard poll is that Biden fares even worse when Trump’s name is taken out of the equation.
When asked whether the president should revert to Trump’s policies, 55% agreed. But when asked whether Biden should adopt “stricter policies” — without Trump’s name attached — support leaped to 64%.
In Texas, which is bearing the brunt of the border surge, a University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll last month found just 27% approved of President Biden’s handling of immigration and the border.
Among Hispanic people, a key demographic group whom Biden hopes to woo with his policies, his support was underwater, with 34% approval to 47% disapproval — a net negative of 13 percentage points.
Summary
Those in this Administration constantly repeat the story that the reason for allowing large numbers of illegals into our nation is because of horrendous economic problems in their home countries. That might have sold at one point. But Border Patrol agents reported that those apprehended sneaking into our country originate in 61 different countries worldwide! So much for “helping” those Northern Triangle aliens.
It’s all about power, folks: the unfettered power to flood the nation with “future” Democrat Party voters. That’s the only logical explanation.
That won’t fly with most Americans. Biden and his fellow Democrats have sold out to that “idea.” I wonder if he’s willing to “fall on his sword” to protect that concept.
To most Americans, whatever the underlying purposes for allowing the thousands of illegals to cross the border daily, there is NO justification for its continuance. And these Americans get stuck when considering it’s blatant disregard for federal immigration laws.
