Around 7 million have crossed the border illegally since January 2021, and somewhere over 2 million are waiting to hear their asylum claims. In other words, we could add an entire state to the Union with the number of people that have crossed the border illegally during President Biden’s tenure.
For months, we’ve been informed by President Joe Biden and his allies in the mainstream media that the crisis at the border was the fault of the Republicans for playing politics with our national security in the lead up to an election year. The framing was simple and entirely deceptive given the President’s history on the border: President Biden, you see, wanted to crack down on illegal immigration, even had a plan to do so, but was stymied in his efforts by those rascally conservatives. In February, the President himself claimed “I asked them the very day I got into office. Give me the Border Patrol. Give me the judges. Give me the people who can stop this,” concluding at the time, that “I’ve done all I can do, just give me the power.” The debate back then was over a supposedly iron-clad border security bill, one that was described in some quarters as the most-right wing anti-immigration law in decades, which just happened to be rather oddly combined with bills to aid Ukraine and Israel, that Republicans ultimately rejected. USA Today described the lead up as “Biden’s pivot: Why the president is moving to the right in 2024 on immigration.” Joey Garrison and Lauren Villagran began by noting that President Biden is starting to sound a lot like former President Donald Trump, “using similar language − seeking a border shutdown − as he urges Congress to pass a bipartisan bill under negotiation by senators to address what Biden has started to call ‘the border crisis.’” This “marks a seismic shift to the right on border and immigration politics that has built over the past year.” In their view, the goal was to “strip Republicans of one of their most effective wedge issues, setting up a potential case that House Republicans − who have refused to back a bipartisan border bill − stood in the way of long-discussed action on the border.” After Republicans rejected the bill for obvious reasons, namely that it allowed by law millions of migrants per year and did not actually close the border by any means, Democrats and the mainstream media immediately adopted the insane position that President Biden, despite presiding over a side open border for more than three years, had somehow transformed himself into a border security champion.
The issue went dormant for some time, during which polls continued to show immigration was a top issue among voters irrespective of where they lived or their race and ethnicity, until President Biden issued an executive order earlier this month that was said to demonstrate his seriousness about securing the border even without Republican help. “The border is not a political issue to be weaponized,” he explained in a White House speech. The order itself adapted some of the items from the defunct border security bill including those which he previously claimed could not be done by fiat and required a vote in Congress, suggesting a rather magical if not entirely believable or effective transformation, as we have seen many times before when the illegal suddenly become legal for political purposes. The number of entries outside legal ports of entry was limited to 2,500 per day on average, and because the daily average has exceeded that threshold for months, it was claimed that the border would be immediately shut down until the number fell substantially. As NBC News described, it, “The shutdown would go into effect immediately since that threshold has already been met, a senior administration official said. The border would reopen only once that number falls to 1,500.” Other “senior administration officials,” restated the obvious, rather ugly reality about the so-called asylum seeker influx that has plagued the border since the President took office, namely that they are not asylum seekers at all, “individuals who cross the southern border unlawfully or without authorization will generally be ineligible for asylum, absent exceptionally compelling circumstances, unless they are accepted by the proclamation.” They continued to note that migrants must demonstrate having a “credible fear” when they apply for asylum or face immediate removal, not simply the desire for a better life or to escape economic hardship, and we “anticipate that we will be removing those individuals in a matter of days, if not hours,” they added. Ironically, the Trump Administration had attempted to institute similar thresholds, but were denied by the courts, clearly indicating the Biden Administration is engaged in the very kind of performative politics they rail against. Not surprisingly, Republicans were less than impressed by the new executive order. In a written statement, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavett claimed that an exception for minors would offer a “green light to child traffickers and sex traffickers,” while being sure to add that “the border invasion and migrant crime will not stop until Crooked Joe Biden is deported from the White House.” “(Biden) created a crisis at the border intentionally,” explained North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer. “(The executive action) has more political risk than political benefit, particularly because his own base is going to reject it.”
Meanwhile, the Administration was sure to simultaneously claim that Republicans had, in fact, broken the border and were playing politics rather than fixing it instead of the reality that the roles are completely reversed. As NBC News noted, “the White House has repeatedly argued that it was congressional Republicans who have failed to act on immigration. Earlier this year, Trump urged House GOP members to kill a bipartisan border funding bill that had been negotiated in the Senate. At the time, House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans said that the Senate bill didn’t go far enough and they argued that a more hard-line immigration bill in the House was preferable.” Of course, politics will continue to be politics, but the real measure of President Biden’s seriousness in this matter is whether or not the border is as closed as advertised. Perhaps needless to say, it isn’t, not even close. NBC News itself revisited the topic a week after the executive order to ascertain whether the border was actually closed according to the terms of the order, and found little impact. Rather than being shut down, there has been a 25% decline in crossings, from 4,000 per day to 3,000 per day, still well above the 2,500 threshold. Further, migrants are not being expelled within hours as the Administration claimed. Instead, they, even those with ineligible asylum claims, are being released in the United States as they have been since the President took office. Even “though the action bars migrants from seeking asylum if they crossed the border illegally, the administration is still releasing illegal crossers inside the U.S. to live while they pursue asylum claims in immigration court, the DHS official said. The senior DHS official said that some migrants who have crossed illegally since last Wednesday and been released into the U.S. may be found ineligible at their asylum hearings and sent home for violating the executive action.” Once again, the Administration opted to blame Congress, even though they promised this executive order would solve the problem. “The senior DHS official said that without money from Congress for more detention space and deportation flights, Border Patrol will continue to be forced to release some illegal border crossers into the U.S.” Incredibly, despite proclaiming the border was closed on day one, “The senior DHS official said it is still too early to judge the effectiveness of Biden’s new policy.” In the meantime, the Border Patrol union believes any drop will be strictly temporary. “We do see those declines in crossings whenever there’s a new policy, but these smugglers quickly shift their strategies and their business, and smuggling humans and people will continue,” explained Hector Garza, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council and a 24-year veteran of the Border Patrol.
This should not be remotely surprising when President Biden promptly followed up on the supposed shutdown with another executive order offering amnesty to 500,000 additional migrants. Yes, he aims to secure the border by allowing more people who crossed the border illegally to stay, because nothing says do not come illegally like making more of those who did so legal. This new order, announced on Tuesday, allows “certain undocumented spouses and children of US citizens to apply for lawful permanent residency without leaving the country – a sweeping election-year move that could offer deportation protections to hundreds of thousands of people,” to quote CNN’s coverage. As they continued, the “action is aimed at appealing to key Latino constituencies in battleground states, including Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, that will be crucial for Biden’s chances to claim a second term. The move is an olive branch to immigration advocates and progressives, many of whom have sharply criticized Biden for previous restrictive actions, including taking steps this month to limit asylum processing at the US southern border.” “Families belong together – it’s that simple. It’s why President Biden’s actions today are so important, and it’s also a powerful stark reminder of Donald Trump’s unforgivable legacy of ripping crying children away from their parents when he put in place his family separation policy,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said without irony in a statement given he represents a President that had more kids in cages than his much maligned predecessor. The President himself was also happy to brag about how what is given with one hand is taken with another. “For those who say the steps I’ve taken are too strict, I say to you – be patient,” he said last week. “In the weeks ahead – and I mean the weeks ahead – I will speak to how we can make our immigration system more fair and more just.” He says this while around 7 million people have crossed the border illegally since January 2021, about the population of the entire state of Massachusetts, and somewhere over 2 million people are waiting to hear their asylum claims, around the size of New Mexico. In other words, we could add an entire, well populated state to the Union simply with the number of people that have crossed the border illegally during President Biden’s tenure. Whatever the President may say, this does not suggest seriousness of any kind on the issue even as his own party has begun to insist the border needs to be closed. Case in point: Democrat Governor of Maryland Wes Moore, whose state was recently shocked by the cold blooded killing of a mother of five at the hands of an illegal immigrant. “My heart is broken for the Morin family, as is our entire state,” he said. “She should still be here.” Rather than accusing others of playing politics, President Biden should stop playing them himself and start saving lives.
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 