Joe Biden needs to turn the page on illegal immigration and the crisis at the southern border. That’s why he put on a big show at the White House on Tuesday, signing an executive order that he says will allow him to crack down on illegal immigration and regain control of the southern border. He may get the headlines he seeks – after all, he can always count on the liberal mainstream media – but that will be all he gets, and everyone knows it. As long as Biden is in the White House, America’s borders will be unsecured, because that’s the way Democrats want it.
The crisis at the southern border began even before Biden was sworn in, because he campaigned in 2020 on a policy of open borders and made sure people knew how things would change if he were to win – and then, when he moved into the White House, he delivered.
For instance, as early as May of 2019, he promised to provide health care to everyone in America “regardless of whether they are documented or undocumented.”
He promised to reverse the previous administration’s restrictions on funding so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions that refuse to assist in the enforcement of federal immigration law, and then delivered on that promise.
He promised to end construction on the border wall, and then made good on that promise early in his administration.
He promised to end the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, under which asylum-seekers were required to wait in Mexico for their asylum claim to be adjudicated in a U.S. immigration court, and then delivered on that promise.
He promised to push for amnesty for illegal aliens, and on his very first day in office, he sent an immigration bill to Congress – the “U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021” – “to restore humanity and American values to our immigration system” by creating a mass amnesty program for illegal aliens.
Millions heard those promises and interpreted them as what they were – an invitation to come to America. And they responded to the invitation, setting records month after month for encounters at the southern border, as evidenced by the counts maintained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection – 1,438,236 encounters in FY 2021 (from February through the end of the year, in September); 2,378,944 in FY 2022; 2,475,669 in FY 2023; and 1,520,502 in FY 24 year to date, for a total of 7,813,351 in the less than four years since Biden took office.
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Not surprisingly, this open borders policy that’s created this mass illegal immigration crisis has had a negative impact on Biden and his job approval ratings. The most recent TIPP Insights poll, fielded May 29-31 among 1,910 U.S. adults, shows that the worst issue for Biden is immigration, where 57% of those surveyed gave him a grade of “D” or “F,” while just 21% gave him an “A” or “B.” Among Independents, it was worse: fully 60% gave him a “D” or “F.”
What to do? Something, anything, to generate positive headlines. It’s not that Biden thinks he actually needs or even wants to truly restore secure borders – he doesn’t. it’s that he thinks he needs to be seen as trying to secure the border, which is different.
So he puts on a big show at the White House. He invites mayors from towns and cities along the southern border to attend a splashy event, so they can go back home after the event and spread the word about the change in policy.
I know Biden is still not serious about reversing the illegal immigration crisis he caused because I’ve read the new policy.
For instance, a White House fact sheet says the new policy will “bar migrants who cross the southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum,” and says the new policy will go into effect “when the southern border is overwhelmed.” And how is “overwhelmed” defined? The border is overwhelmed when 2,500 immigrants per day cross the border illegally.
In other words, if the average number of daily encounters is less than 2,500 – say, for example, 2,499 – the new authority will not kick in. That’s another way of saying the Biden administration will still happily allow 2,499 immigrants to cross the border illegally every day. That works out to 912,135 illegal immigrants per year.
(Allow me to insert here, parenthetically, a simple thought: The proper number of illegal aliens allowed to cross the border on a daily basis should not be 2,499, it should be zero.)
Further, the new authority doesn’t do anything to address the 1,500 immigrants who enter every day using the CBP One app on their phones to set up appointments at border control points of entry so they can claim asylum. That’s another 547,500 immigrants who will be allowed to enter the country by the Biden administration while they wait for a hearing in an immigration court.
Moreover, the new authority doesn’t do anything to address the 30,000 immigrants from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Haiti who fly into the U.S. every month via a special parole process implemented in January of 2023.
So even under this new “crack down” policy, the Biden administration will still allow more than 1.7 million immigrants to enter the country every year to wait for processing by an immigration court – processing that results in the vast majority of them being denied asylum.
Here’s another way I know Biden isn’t really serious about “cracking down” on illegal immigration: His administration has secretly been operating a covert program of mass amnesty, simply closing more than 350,000 asylum cases since 2022 without requiring the removal of those asylum-seekers from the country. Instead, “the move allows them to legally, indefinitely roam the U.S. without fear of deportation,” according to The New York Post’s reporting.
It's not a case of too little, too late. It’s just a case of Biden lying to us. The American people have seen through it and will not be swayed by it. They know that if they want a secure border, Joe Biden has to go. It’s just that simple.
Jenny Beth Martin is Honorary Chairman of Tea Party Patriots Action.
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