Pete Riehm
President Donald Trump recently excoriated Joe Biden for his abysmal “America Last” policy. Focusing on Biden’s utterly failed handling of illegal immigration, he said, “Now we have wars in Ukraine, Israel, and Yemen, but no 'war' on our Southern Border." Oh, that makes a lot of sense. It’s stunning that Democrats and establishment Republicans are keenly interested in preserving Ukrainian, Gazan, or Taiwanese borders, but have little attention and much less action for securing America’s borders.
The open border crisis is spreading chaos, crime, and misery across the entire country as unchecked hordes of illegal aliens invade our nation daily since Biden took office. The insanity is that Americans and illegal migrants both suffer as this lawless migration is allowed unabated. Americans lose jobs and wages to the cheap labor and now are deprived of some government services as scarce resources are diverted to care for the masses of illegal migrants, but the aliens are physically and sexually abused along their trek and exploited by the drug lords and Democrats. It’s not really working well for anyone except the cartels in Mexico and Washington.
Until recently, any attempt to discuss controlling illegal immigration was promptly shouted down and silenced as purely racist xenophobia. The typical Saul Alinsky tactic is to equate immigration reform with being against any immigration, so solutions were never proposed and debated. Any opposition to open borders is mischaracterized as wanting no immigrants, so the press and politicians waste time bickering over false premises. It’s all quite silly because Americans acknowledge and embrace that we are a nation of immigrants, but such ridiculous arguments have paralyzed politicians on immigration reform for years.
The immigration reform debate was stifled until blue states and cities started suffering. Before they felt the brunt of open borders, blue officials would haughtily declare themselves sanctuary cities or states because they cared more and didn’t have that many illegal migrants anyway. When Biden flung the doors open, the border states were absolutely overrun and unable to handle the multitudes flooding in. Budgets were busted, crime exploded, but also illegal aliens suffered as overwhelmed systems could not care for the throngs.
The border states were begging for relief and reform, but the bluebloods on the east and left coasts could not be bothered until Florida and Texas started sharing their ample supply of illegal aliens with blue cities. At first, the blue cities tried to take it in stride, but the illegal migrants just kept coming! Democrat Mayors complained and accused border states of dirty tricks. Republican Governors explain that they have been living with this lawless onslaught for years, so why don’t both red and blue states pressure Biden to simply secure the border?!
Massachusetts is the only state to codify a “right to housing.” The state is running out of money and places to house overflowing illegal immigrants, so they are imploring private citizens to take in some aliens. An amazing irony since Massachusetts is one of the few states that has experience with forced quartering by the government, hence the Third Amendment.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams stated supporting a constant flow of illegal immigrants is unsustainable; red state governors and mayors agree. Rational Americans would expect bipartisan cooperation to stop the insanity on the border, but Democrat politicians want those illegal voters more than prosperity and security for Americans.
Instead of banding together and forcing the Biden Administration to secure the border and stem the unending tide of illegal immigrants, Democrats continue to blame Republicans for sharing the burden. The hypocrisy is stunning. Blue states are still virtual signaling about being sanctuaries for illegal aliens as long as the red states keep the unwashed masses.
While Democrats with a few exceptions are generally intransigent about immigration reform, Republicans are not facing down the administration and some are unbelievably helping Biden keep the status quo. Oklahoma Senator James Lankford (R) has been pushing a so-called immigration compromise bill to get some action. The border crisis is certainly out of control, so would just any action help? Wanting at least 25 GOP Senators to join him, Lankford is proposing more legal immigration, more visas, and work visas for illegals already here, but NOTHING ABOUT CLOSING THE BORDER!!!
Lankford’s proposal does nothing to stop illegal immigration, so it’s a pointless gesture to maintain the status quo. What is he really after? Oh, it’s tied to a Ukraine funding bill! He wants 25 Republicans Senators to give this supposed immigration reform enough weight to push it through the House and drag more Ukraine funding through with it. With Republicans like that looking out for the border, who needs Democrats to keep the border open?
As usual, Republicans are disappointing and ineffective and aiding Democrats, but when will Democrats have enough? They are sharing the misery now with draining coffers, soaring crime, and suffering citizens. They know the unbridled illegal invasion is debilitating blue cities and states too, so why are open borders so precious? It’s all about power. Democrats want more bodies to vote even illegally (Come on! Democrats encourage illegal immigration, and they certainly also encourage illegal voting). That has always been part of the plan. The other part is a longer game to recast American culture into a more submissive society with foreigners not accustomed to exercising their rights.
The leftist Democrat scheme to maintain open borders is sinister, but perhaps worse are Republicans who feign to help secure our southern border while just trying to send more Americans tax dollars to the Ukrainian border. The uni-party strikes again.
“Everything they say is crooked and deceitful. They refuse to act wisely or do good” (Psalm 36:3).
Pete Riehm is a conservative activist and columnist in south Alabama. Email him at peteriehm@bellsouth.net or read all his columns at http://www.renewamerica.com/.
© Pete RiehmThe views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.