I was taken aback this week to learn that President Biden has decided to send 1,500 active-duty troops to the national security and humanitarian disaster that is the U.S. southern border. This is obviously connected to the ending next week of border restrictions contained in the Title 42 public health law.
Various news agencies have reported that perhaps as many as 35,000 illegals are staged on the Mexico side of the border in Ciudad Juarez alone—waiting to continue this two-year invasion of America encouraged by the Biden administration—and will soon cross over our border with Mexico and into the U.S. at El Paso. This desperate reality has cities across the U.S. declaring states of emergency and requesting federal funding as they prepare for an avalanche of illegals.
To put this news in context, let’s recall how things were a mere 2.5 years ago.
Recall the unrelenting efforts of the Trump Administration to suppress and turn back the tide of illegals of every kind. Please know that we are long past talking about Hispanics who are coming to America to work, seeking a better life. We are now having transported into our country illegally massive quantities of drugs (including fentanyl which is killing Americans everyday), human and child trafficking, violent criminals, terrorists, and everything in between.
However, the entirety of the Biden Administration has been about undoing all of the Trump Administration efforts.
So, why now?
My best guess is that this disaster on the Southern border is finally doing real harm to the President’s reelection prospects—the blue states and sanctuary cities are finally feeling the crushing economic burden imposed by illegals that states like Texas and Florida have borne for years.
To this end, I read an article in the Wall Street Journal this week entitled “Chicago’s Sanctuary City Awakening.” It makes the point that because of the impact of both Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Florida Governor Ron Desantis busing illegals from their states to sanctuary cities like Chicago, Chicago is now crying for help as it shoulders the burden of thousands of men, women, and children with no resources of their own.
However, as WSJ notes, “that’s nothing next to El Paso which this week declared a state of emergency, as it braces for the end of Title 42 pandemic expulsions.” A state of emergency. Numerous American cities are now literally begging for help to stop the illegal invasion that is overwhelming them.
I also note that the Biden White House has carefully tried to avoid the elephant in the room this week—that the man, Francisco Oropesa, accused of murdering five people, including an eight-year-old child, in Cleveland, Texas, is an illegal alien who was previously deported five times.
Recall, this is the same Biden Administration that has told us repeatedly that the “border is secure.”
Governor Abbott tweeted this week that “Biden says he will deploy 1,500 troops to the border — primarily to do paperwork. And only for 90 days. This does nothing to stop illegal immigration.” He added, “I deployed up to 10,000 Texas National Guard to the border to fill the gaps created by Biden’s reckless open border policies.”
U.S. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler commented on what could have been done prior to needing troops: “Biden could have finished the wall. He could have enforced our nation’s laws. He could have protected our national security,” he tweeted. “But he chose to do nothing. Now, active-duty troops head to the border to clean up his mess.”
U.S. Senator Tom Cotton suggested the Biden troop initiative is a mere “publicity stunt” designed to confuse Americans who may believe the Biden Administration is finally taking seriously the pending waves of illegal immigration. (Breitbart)
If the whole situation were not such a dangerous and tragic one, it would be hard not to say “I told you so” to these American sanctuary cities who have ignored federal immigration law for years and done everything possible to impede law enforcement from apprehending and deporting illegals.
This is the point: one of the constitutional powers that actually is directly granted to the federal government is the solemn obligation to secure our borders and defend them against invasion. The Biden Administration is, by design, abjectly failing at this responsibility.
As President Trump has said, “If you don’t have borders then you don’t have a country.”
Royal Alexander is a Shreveport attorney