President Joe Biden is fully, wholly, ultimately, entirely to blame for the invasion over the southern border. No ifs. No buts.
His clever handlers - we don't think Biden is capable of doing anything this creative - have incredibly asked Biden to hold the Republicans responsible for the border mess by leveraging the power of his bully pulpit. And like a host of decisions throughout the last three years - on Ukraine, the economy, the environment, lawfare, federal spending, and the Middle East - Biden has blindly followed the advice of his White House lieutenants, each time bringing mighty America to its knees. The country has become Bananamerica - where there is little respect for the rule of law, as seven million illegal immigrants have proven.
The bizarre Biden administration position is this: The bipartisan Senate bill, the details of which are still closely held and have not even been revealed to the House Speaker, is a magic pill. Take it and, lo, all problems will be solved. Because many Republicans in the Senate and nearly the entire GOP caucus in the House are opposed to this magic Bill, the Republicans are at fault. And, by the way, the Republican opposition is also strangling Ukraine, which is waiting for its $61 billion boondoggle gift. [Never mind that even Ukrainian President Zelenskyy made a splash by discussing peace in Davos, not war. His peace terms are incredibly naive, but at least he was not begging for more weapons].
Let's unpack the Biden position.
Firstly, there is no need for any Congressional legislation to fix America's precarious position. We are in this mess only because Biden used dozens of executive orders to undo every executive order issued by Trump - claiming that America's response to illegal immigration ought to be more ‘humane.’ During the peak of Trump's clampdown, there were fewer than 500 border crossing encounters a day - when illegals crossed the river and surrendered themselves to officials in the hopes of claiming asylum. In contrast, in just a fifteen-day period in September 2023, there were 142,000 encounters, translating to over 9,400 crossings a day, a 1,900 percent increase.
According to Congressman Jason Smith from Missouri's 8th Congressional District, there were 5,000 encounters daily every month during the first twenty months of the Biden administration. Atrociously, the bipartisan Senate bill has baked in this number as an accepted ceiling.
An essential tool Trump developed to discourage illegal immigration was the "Remain in Mexico" policy. Under this policy, migrants could apply for asylum but wait in Mexico until their asylum hearings, most of which would be denied for lack of cause as most migrants come to America seeking better economic opportunities, a category not covered under existing asylum law.
When Biden reversed the Remain in Mexico policy, migrants would claim asylum during a border interaction. They would then be released into the country with a court date years from now - because there are not enough judges to adjudicate asylum requests. Most immigrants never show up for their hearing and become embedded in America's cities and towns.
Immigration, like taxes and spending, is among the most challenging legislative topics because everyone has a strong opinion about what America is. But everyone agrees that the United States, with Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty as symbols of its welcoming nature in the early 20th century, has always been a land of immigrants, going back to the country’s very founding.
The questions tearing people apart in Congress include: Who should we invite to immigrate? Skilled or unskilled? How many legally? How many asylees? How many illegals can we tolerate? As the world's wealthiest country, what is our obligation to aspirants from other countries?
The last major immigration bill to pass Congress was in 1986 when President Reagan agreed to legalize over six million illegal immigrants who had entered America before 1982 in exchange for Congress passing laws to severely restrict future unlawful immigration. It was a one-sided compromise. The illegals became legalized, but illegal immigration never stopped.
President Obama was a stalwart in issuing executive orders to change immigration law. He authorized DACA to protect children from deportation when they were brought in as illegal immigrants and even gave them a work permit. The program requires that the DACA status and work permit be renewed every two years. Once a benefit is granted, it is impossible to withdraw it. DACA is still the law of the land, but Congress has never acted on it. Obama also gave the spouses of workers in specialty occupations (H4) unrestricted work permits. Congress has never approved the H4-EAD visa either.
The point is that passing any immigration bill into law is virtually impossible. Trump came close when a reluctant Chuck Schumer agreed to give Trump $20 billion to build a border wall in return for a DACA deal and not shutting down the government. In one of Trump's most unpardonable mistakes, he tried to extract too much, and the deal fell through. The government shut down anyway. The DACA issue has remained. The border wall was never built. Who knows how many illegal crossings the wall could have prevented in the last three years?
Congress is far more divided today than during the Trump-Schumer discussions on the border wall. The Democrats are responsible for this division as they have used every tool to go after Trump and MAGA Republicans - two impeachments, J6, and lawfare in city, county, state, and federal courts. Does Biden honestly expect the GOP to support him in passing a legislative overhaul when his approval numbers are so low? Biden is no Reagan.
No, President Biden, no new law is needed. Just take your pen and instruct your agencies to shut down the border and deport every individual who is waiting for their asylum requests. Every one of them. You created this mess - so fix it and bring us back to where we were when you took office. Period.
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