During the last presidential election, then-candidate Joe Biden got away with trashing then-President Donald Trump for his border policies. After this week’s trip to Arizona without visiting the border mess he created, we finally got proof the border nightmare’s no accident. It’s policy.
Biden’s recent sojourn in the Grand Canyon State cleared up a conundrum for us: Was Biden’s destructive border policy a result of age-related mental issues and incompetence? Or is it what he wanted all along?
The answer came when he was questioned by Fox’s Peter Doucy about his curious Arizona itinerary, which brought him to Phoenix, just 100 miles from the border: “Why go to a border state and not visit the border?” Doocy asked.
Biden’s response: “Because there are more important things going on. They’re going to invest billions of dollars in a new enterprise.”
“More important things” than millions of undocumented people, including some affiliated with terror groups, crossing our border? More important than the hundreds of migrants who died on the journey, or were sold into virtual slavery by human traffickers?
More important than the thousands of Americans who will die from overdoses of fentanyl that had been carried across the border by members of Mexico’s vicious drug cartels, which now also control the illegal immigration business, pocketing billions of dollars?
More important than the decimated communities on the border that Biden didn’t deign to visit, which are now suffering from soaring crime and other costs due to the gush of illegals, now at record levels?
Before Biden, illegal entries into the U.S. had slowed to a trickle under Trump.
Today, it’s a disaster. Some 2.4 million people crossed our border illegally in the most recent fiscal year, including hundreds of thousands of “gotaways,” people who were seen by border police but couldn’t be caught. That number, by the way, is a 40% spike from the year before.
Not surprisingly, there’s been a big change in tone from Biden.
“When Donald Trump was president, Biden described ‘horrifying scenes’ at the U.S. southern border of ‘kids being kept in cages’ and federal agents ‘ripping children from their mothers’ arms,’ ” as Fox News accurately noted. “But nearly two years into his presidency, Biden has never visited the border despite thousands of illegal immigrants flooding into the country every day.”
In sum, this is a radical experiment by the extreme left, Biden included, to destroy Americans’ notions of nationhood, culture and political rights. It also violently erases the very idea of having a border, a long-time globalist and socialist goal.
Meanwhile, the uncontrolled border is killing people, literally. According to the CDC, as reported by CNSNews, “fentanyl drug overdose deaths surged 23% to 71,238 in 2021, up from 57,834 in 2020, while all drug overdose deaths combined increased 15%.”
The DEA further warns, “six in 10 fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills are lethal.” The agency from May through September seized more than 36 million lethal doses of fentanyl, mostly made in illicit labs south of our border. Think about that. We wonder: How many got through?
At least 853 people died crossing the border in 2022, up a shocking 56% from 546 in 2021. And both those numbers are records. As the New York Post observes: “Countless others likely died in transit.”
And this doesn’t include the massive economic and human cost borne by the border towns that are on illegal immigration routes into the U.S. Damage estimates are in the billions, but no one really knows how much, exactly, these towns suffer.
Will the new “bipartisan” immigration bill making its way through the Senate offer any help? Hardly.
The compromise crafted by Republican Sen. Thorn Tillis and Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, which they will try to pass during the lame-duck session, gives citizenship to 2 million people here illegally, extends Title 42 (which eases deportation of illegal border crossers) but only for a year, and spends $40 billion on border security.
Given that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas claims the “border is secure,” an obvious lie that he has repeated multiple times to Congress, we don’t have much confidence the money will be well spent.
We support immigration, but not open borders. Unfortunately, in today’s polarized debate, if you want limited or controlled immigration, the kind that brings in people who can assimilate and become productive Americans, you’re called “racist,” “fascist,” “white supremacist,” or worse.
Sorry, Biden Democrats, but polls show Americans want change in immigration policy. The status quo isn’t acceptable.
A recent Rasmussen Reports Survey found that 67% want a wall built, including 49% of Democrats. An even-larger 69% want an E-Verify system for employers to make sure those they hire are here legally. The Senate bill does neither of those things.
In an October Harvard/Harris poll, immigration ranked third on Americans’ list of major concerns. And in our own I&I/TIPP Poll taken in November, when asked what immigration policies Americans would back, just 11% said “keep the current policy in place.”
Enough of this insanity. As we’ve said countless times, nations that don’t control their borders cease to be nations. Sadly, that’s where we are now. Regardless of your party, you should be alarmed. Want to keep your country? Let your local representative know. Before it’s too late.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
