Priorities: Amid Growing Crisis, Biden Administration Moves to Banish Terms Like 'Illegal Alien'

President Joe Biden finally abandoned his administration's ridiculous pretense that the crisis at the Southern border is not worthy of the term "crisis" over the weekend. The White House tried to walk it back with lackluster spin, but what's the point? Illegal border crossings spiked to recent record-highs last month, as did the number of unaccompanied minors entering the country. As we've noted previously, while many illegal immigrants are simply trying to forge a better life for themselves here in America – an understandable desire, even if it's not a sufficient reason for the United States to sacrifice its sovereignty or undermine the rule of law. But there's also a national security and public safety component to this, as there are criminal elements seeking to take advantage of our non-secure border, not to mention suspected terrorists. Amid this debacle, directly caused by the Biden administration's foolish policies and rhetoric, the "adults" in charge are cracking down on...words:

SCOOP: ICE, CBP to stop using ‘illegal alien’ and ‘assimilation’ under new Biden administration order https://t.co/FUM2po4LRG
— Maria Sacchetti (@mariasacchetti) April 19, 2021

Language enforcement? Oh yes. Border enforcement? Meh. "Illegal alien" is a demographic term that has been used for many years. It's not a value judgment on anyone's humanity, which is how it's framed by progressives; it's just a factual category. Preening about adopting more "compassionate" language would be unserious political correctness under normal circumstances. Preening about adopting more "compassionate language" in the middle of an acute and spiraling crisis is a very on-brand caricature of Democratic governance and priorities. As for "assimilation," it's amazing how that has somehow become problematic:

Assimilation isn't a racialist concept or an ignoble goal outside of extremely insular activist communities. It is the objective of every successful immigrant group. https://t.co/BY6fee2xC2
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) April 19, 2021

The people who care about this are the same people who use "LatinX," which strips a gendered language of its authenticity, which precious few normal Hispanic Americans support. Meanwhile, the president has reportedly found his preferred scapegoat for his own failing immigration policies:

Top White House officials have grown increasingly frustrated with Health Secretary Xavier Becerra over his department’s sluggish effort to house thousands of unaccompanied minors, as the administration grapples with a record number of children crossing the southern border. The dissatisfaction with Becerra centers on complaints he’s been slow to take charge of the response since his confirmation on March 18...a month into Becerra’s tenure, officials working on the issue have privately questioned his preparedness for managing such a sprawling emergency — and his willingness to take ownership of a historically intractable and politically divisive problem. “He did not fully appreciate the issue when he first came in,” said one senior administration official. “It’s been a steep learning curve for him.”

This is a disaster of Biden's making, so blaming a cabinet secretary – especially someone other than the official spouting this stuff – is absurd. That said, it sure would be nice if we had a Health Secretary who had any experience in the public health realm at a moment like this, in the midst of an ongoing deadly pandemic. But someone decided to nominate a lawyer famous for persecuting ideological opponents and doing legal battle with nuns instead. Who's responsible for that? And who decided to confirm him? I'll leave you with the Vice President visiting a border state. A northern border state:

The vice president is getting closer to visiting _a_ border: “Vice President Kamala Harris is planning to visit New Hampshire in person later this week, with one or more stops in the Laconia-Plymouth area likely.” Madam VP, we meant the other border.https://t.co/njwZpeDHIa
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) April 19, 2021

In fairness, at this point, illegal immigration from Canada might be a growing concern these days, amid their vaccine mess: