OPINION

Biden's Neglect of Southern Border is Another Public Health Crisis Waiting to Happen

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

With Title 42 protections lifted and no concrete plans to secure our southern border, the Biden Administration is moving America closer to yet another healthcare catastrophe.

As a medical professional with practices in multiple border states, as well as a former U.S. Ambassador, I am deeply concerned that an onslaught of migrants across our southern border could open the door for yet another public health crisis. Unfettered immigration will leave our nation less safe and more deadly as drugs, sickness, and potential viruses flow across the border and into our communities.

The pathways of disease and destruction that the Biden Administration has created is not only concerning, but absolutely petrifying. Drugs, disease, and crime is on its way, and the Biden Administrations denials and deflections are the wrong direction to save America from this pending catastrophe.

Title 42 allows the government to take emergency actions if needed during a public health crisis including stopping “the introduction of communicable diseases." Effectively, the federal government can prohibit entry into the U.S. during a public health emergency. The rule was first created to address matters of public health emergencies decades ago. During the onslaught of Covid 19 in March 2020, President Trump acted decisively and directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to invoke Title 42. In turn, the rule helped to regulate immigration and border crossings at the Southern border. It was a brilliant move on his part.

Unsurprisingly, President Trump was met with criticism on various fronts. Dr. Fauci himself, either not understanding the policy's strength, or merely continuing to deflect from his “gain-of-function” devastation, stated that focusing on immigration was “not a solution” to fighting the Covid-19 outbreak.

Now, over one million Americans have paid the price for Covid-19 and President Biden’s failures. More Americans have died of Covid-19 under President Biden even with having a vaccine developed by Operation Warp Speed (courtesy of the Trump Administration). It is deeply concerning that our U.S. border policies have become a political battle while disregarding the health and safety of our own citizens.

Plain and simple, a secure border should be as bi-partisan of an issue as it was when it came to fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. The border is not secure, and our Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) is overwhelmed.

It doesn’t take a skilled politician or diplomat to conclude the inevitable: the more illegal immigration there is, the greater the number of drugs and diseases there will be that flood across the border at the intolerable levels resulting in the death and destruction for the American people. The crisis along our southern border will continue to devastate our country on all fronts if we do not act immediately to secure our own border.

This humanitarian disaster places the risk of Covid-19, tuberculosis, rampant crime, and other diseases of humanitarian disasters squarely on the backs of everyday Americans and puts American citizens last. Meanwhile, President Biden and his minion of Secretary Blinken and Secretary Mayorkas, the “skilled” diplomats who brought us an Afghanistan debacle and a complete disaster in Ukraine, now play out some kind of political ideology and theater as we, the American citizens, the people they are sworn to protect and defend, are bearing the burden and carrying the load of their ideological and diplomatic incompetence.

President Biden’s hypocrisy is as staggering as the images coming from the southern border.

Yet again, he is putting American citizens' health and safety last. President Obama’s quote regarding then Vice President Joe Biden, sadly resonates profoundly amidst the incoming humanitarian southern border tsunami about to hit America. As former President Obama said, "Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f... things up." Sadly, this appears to be not only an honest assessment of Obama’s opinion of our Commander in Chief, but quite prophetic.
More chaos across the border, more opportunities for the cartels and their killer contraband, and more innocent American lives lost. It is now here, in clear full view for not only America to just see, but to experience, in their struggles for a safe and prosperous free American life.

Our southern border should be our first line of defense when it comes to keeping our communities healthy and our families safe. A secure border - both at the Southern and Northern borders, U.S. points of entry and maritime ports is critical.

The Biden Administration has been gaslighting Congress and the American people, while green lighting an open border humanitarian crisis which will have lasting impacts on Americans for generations to come. The human price for all parties is inhumane and is the result of an Administration who puts our people last, and socialist ideology first.