My Op-Ed on illegal immigration ran in today’s Moscow-Pullman Daily News.
The Biden Administration is trying to shift the blame for the 10 milliion illegal aliiens onto the Republicans. That gas lighting won’t fly. Biden himself was the origin of this impossible situation.
Border security is national security, and that isn’t a partisan opinion. After all, a border quite literally defines the area of a government’s jurisdiction. If a government cannot control its border, then it cannot provide security for its people.
President Biden has allowed at best a porous border, and at worst an open border. From 310,531 illegal encounters in 2017, the number soared to an alarming 3,201,144 in 2023 alone.
On day one in office, Biden introduced a trio of measures that acted as a beacon for illegal aliens: halting deportations, suspending Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, and stopping border wall construction.
The result? During the last three years, over 8 million illegal aliens have crossed into the U.S. That’s akin to the entire population of New York City crossing our borders unlawfully within three years. And those are just the ones we know about. An estimated 2 million more entered by eluding detection.
To make matters worse, Biden stopped enforcing Title 42. Over 80,000 unaccompanied minors vanished into the U.S., compromising their own safety, burdening communities, and challenging our national integrity.
These numbers aren’t mere statistics; they represent a glaring national security emergency. American taxpayers are shouldering the financial burden of hundreds of billions of dollars. Our communities struggle in the face of sudden policy paralysis, and many are collapsing under the weight. Essential services like police, fire departments, and schools are being pared down to make way for this invasion.
Today’s leadership has veered off course. Our stark reality stands in direct contrast to the stance held by past Democratic leaders like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, who both emphasized the importance of border control:
“All Americans, not only in the States most heavily affected but in every place in this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public service they use imposes burdens on our taxpayers. That’s why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders by hiring a record number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before, by cracking down on illegal hiring, and by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens.” —Bill Clinton
“We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, unchecked, and circumventing the line of people who are waiting patiently, diligently, and lawfully to become immigrants in this country.” —Barack Obama.
And even Joe Biden believed this once upon a time.
“No great nation can be in a position where they can’t control their borders. It matters how you control your borders. Not just for immigration, but it matters for drugs, terror, and a whole range of things.” — Then U.S. Senator Joe Biden
New York City says they are drowning in debt from the 15,000 illegals who have arrived there. As a sanctuary city, that progressive utopia pays $137 million for illegals to stay in hotels for free and provides them $53 million in prepaid credit cards for food.
Many NY residents are fed up with the city closing schools to board illegals, and providing free food and housing to illegals while the taxpayers live paycheck to paycheck. Trump is even making inroads into flipping New York state red over this issue. If 15,000 is drowning NYC in debt, what are the other 10 million doing to the US economy?
In the last three months alone, the border Patrol has had 785,000 known “catch-and-release” encounters: write down the names they give, fingerprint them, check if they have a criminal record in the US (but not in their home countries), give them a “notice to appear,” and release them into society.
It used to be a privilege and an honor to become an American citizen. It could be achieved through asylum, bringing in men and women who underwent torment at the hands of wicked governments. Or citizenship could be gained from hard-won visas, which were granted with the promise that its holders would be contributing members of society. In short, while immigration used to bring in some of the worthiest of mankind onto our shores, now some of society’s most menacing entities can pour through our borders unchecked.
In November alone, the Border Patrol encountered 17 people on the FBI terror watch list. Again, that’s just the ones they encountered.
We also know that a significant number of Chinese are entering by the southern border. Are China’s PLA, the Russians, and the Iranians putting more sleeper cells in the US?
Why wouldn’t terrorists and state-sponsored actors take advantage of this open invitation to enter the US? For decades, we have known that our most critical, yet weakest infrastructure is our power grid. It was never designed for physical security or cyber security. You can drive right up to any power substation. Same with water treatment facilities and transportation mechanisms.
Biden’s border policy directly caused the flood of illegal aliens into the US. This has not only strained resources but also raised significant concerns over community safety, the integrity of immigration processes, and the broader implications for national security.
The biggest question is why. What is the motivation, given the tangible costs to the country’s fabric and the crippling weight born by the American people?
I think we’ll soon find that, unless the Biden administration is stopped in its tracks, the reasons for this illegal flood will soon be revealed to be a catastrophic play made by our socialist leaders. However, our society will be so altered by the time it unfolds that we will not recover in our lifetime.