No issue matters more to the future of the U.S. than the crisis at the southern border, but you’d hardly know that by watching politicians in Washington, D.C. operate.
Earlier this month, Joe Biden traveled to Arizona, a border state ravaged by the escalating crisis. But, when asked if he would visit the border during his trip, Biden smugly dismissed the question, making clear he has little interest in alleviating the problem he helped create.
“There are more important things going on,” Biden said.
As is often the case, Biden is dead wrong in his assessment. Nothing is more critical to our present security and future sovereignty than the ongoing crisis at the border.
The problems escalated dramatically shortly after Biden took office in January 2021. During the 2022 fiscal year, which ran from October 1, 2021, to September 30, 2022, 98 suspected terrorists were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border. That is the highest number of alleged terrorists ever arrested at the border in a single year and a stunning spike from just three years ago when zero suspected terrorists were able to cross the border under the Trump Administration.
Loose immigration policies enabled the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and many of the recommendations of the September 11 commission to fix those policies have been ignored by Congress. Joe Biden’s abandoned border has made America even more vulnerable to another terrorist attack.
In addition to the national security threat posed by the border crisis, Biden has largely succeeded in dramatically changing the country's makeup. Roughly 5.5 million illegal aliens have crossed the U.S. border since Biden took office, according to an analysis from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). This rapid influx of illegal aliens is more than any nation can realistically handle and can potentially upend the U.S. politically, economically, and culturally.
Of course, that is precisely the point. While most Americans look at what’s happening at the border and see a humanitarian and national security crisis, Biden and his cronies see an influx of cheap labor for their donors and potential new voters for their party. The Biden Administration does not view the southern border as American land worth protecting but as a voter recruitment center for its party.
Biden’s “who cares” mentality about the border crisis is pervasive across his administration. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has repeatedly downplayed the border crisis, and promotes anti-borders ideologues within DHS. During a recent national security speech, Mayorkas almost completely ignored the border crisis, despite the recent success suspected terrorists have had in exploiting it. If anyone had hopes that Biden and Mayorkas would approach the border crisis more seriously in the second half of their term, those hopes have been completely dashed.
Perhaps Biden has misread the results of the 2022 elections as an affirmation of his anti-border policies and permission from the electorate to go full-speed ahead. Perhaps Mayorkas doesn’t care that he’s on the verge of becoming just the second cabinet official in American history to be impeached, knowing that he will almost surely be acquitted in the Senate. Perhaps American voters haven’t prioritized the immigration issue enough, not realizing the long-term effects these anti-border policies will have on their future, children, and grandchildren. Whatever the case, the border crisis could get even worse.
While the Supreme Court recently temporarily halted the anti-border contingent’s bid to lift the Trump-era COVID expulsion policy under Title 42 that summarily expels illegal border-crossers in a public health emergency, that result could change. As many as 14,000 illegal aliens could soon begin crossing the border every day. Our already overwhelmed immigration system is on the verge of being completely shattered. The American people will pay the ultimate price with the cultural and economic upheaval that will surely follow. No issue is more important than solving the border crisis, but the Biden Administration seems content to fiddle while Rome burns.
Dale L. Wilcox is executive director and general counsel for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a public interest law firm working to defend the rights and interests of the American people from the negative effects of mass migration
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