Although our wide-open southern border with Mexico is already overrun with illegal immigrants from around the world, President Biden and his inept Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas are about to make things much worse. The Biden/Mayorkas message is clear: Our border is wide open, come on in!
In case you think I’m exaggerating, let’s look at the facts. With Biden’s blessing, the Centers for Disease Control will lift the asylum ban known as Title 42 by the end of May, opening American doors to millions of illegal immigrants looking for any excuse to enter our country through the back door. Title 42 allows U.S. immigration authorities to turn away illegal immigrants for COVID-19 and other public health reasons. Lifting Title 42 will open the floodgates for millions of illegals, including criminal aliens.
“With COVID fading, Biden’s border crisis will only get worse,” opined the conservative Washington Examiner. “Of the more than 2 million migrants arrested for illegally crossing the border last year, more than half were returned to Mexico under Title 42.”
“Biden will face a tough choice on the border,” the Examiner continued. “Does he let every migrant who wants to apply for asylum into the country… or does he revive Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy?” If he bows to heavy pressure from progressives and socialists for “humane” immigration policies, as expected, he’ll let everyone into our country, including drug and human traffickers. And that will be a midterm election campaign gift to Republicans who want to regain control of Congress and our southern border.
But this isn’t just a Democrats vs. Republicans campaign issue; it’s bipartisan. “There’s going to be a surge at the border,“ said Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), who’s in a tough reelection battle. “There should be an (immigration) plan, and I’ve been calling for it all along.”
“Ending Title 42 prematurely will likely lead to a migrant surge that the administration does not seem to be ready for,” added Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, another moderate Democrat. More conservative Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va) said Biden has made “a frightening decision.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported a record 1.7 migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2021, a number four times higher than total encounters in 2020. According to The Hill, “Border officials expect to break that record this year” because there were 838,000 such encounters in the first three months of this year. That would result in a new record total of 3.3 million encounters this year – more than 9,000 per day. Good luck to the Border Patrol.
But wait, there’s more. Biden and Mayorkas have effectively ordered Border Patrol officers NOT to enforce our nation’s immigration laws. Instead, illegals are being rounded up at the border and put aboard midnight flights to cities around the country. Cities like Reno and/or Carson City? Who knows? We do know that those illegals are given court dates before immigration judges, but most of them don’t show up for their appointments.
I note that UNR’s well-intentioned International Center is looking for homes for immigrants. I hope they mean refugees from war-torn Ukraine, and not illegal immigrants from Mexico, Central and South America, and beyond, including single Middle Eastern men who show up at the border without ID papers. I don’t mind being nice to immigrants who seek new lives in the Promised Land (the U.S., that is), but we have no reason to be nice to immigrants with ulterior motives.
Yes, we need new comprehensive immigration laws. In the meantime, however, we should complete the border wall and vigorously enforce existing immigration laws.
Guy W. Farmer is the Appeal’s senior political columnist.
