Biden’s Botched Border

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

By opening our southern border to endless streams of illegal aliens, and planting them throughout the United States, President Biden has effectively nullified a vast swath of U.S. law. Last month the Supreme Court upheld an injunction against Biden’s lawless policy, in a case to be argued in December.

While that case entitled U.S. v. Texas was percolating through the lower courts, there were 2.2 million encounters with illegal aliens in the last reported nine months. This surpasses the record set by the entire first fiscal year of the Biden regime and “is the worst it’s ever been,” according to Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), whose district includes part of the border.

Meanwhile, Biden blocks lawful visitors like tennis star Novak Djokovic from playing in the U.S. Open, merely for declining the Covid vaccine. Yet Biden allows millions of unvaccinated illegal aliens to pour over our southern border because they are presumed to be future Democrat voters.

A Republican delegation visited the problem firsthand last week after hearing complaints by the sanctuary New York City Democrat mayor, Eric Adams, about how Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has bused 1,500 of the migrants to the big city. “That’s but a small taste of everyday life on the border and they’re starting to realize it is overwhelming,” said Rep. Gonzales.

Overwhelming indeed. Crime statistics from Texas show in the last year 259,000 illegal aliens were charged with more than 433,000 criminal offenses, among which there were 800 arrests for murder and more than 10,000 charges for sexual offenses.

Texas border cities were initially reluctant to join Gov. Abbott’s bold busing of migrants to liberal northeast cities. But the continued lack of attention by the Biden administration to this crisis has prompted El Paso and others to give illegals showing up in their cities a long-distance ride on Gov. Abbott’s buses, too.

The Republicans visiting the southern border included two candidates for Congress from New York. They point out how their state’s Democrats have exacerbated the problem of illegal immigration by giving driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, along with welfare, housing, and other benefits.

Many of the illegal migrants hop off the bus in more desirable conservative regions along the way, like Tennessee, if they get a chance. But officials there do not want the illegals either, and ask Abbott to keep the migrants on the buses until their destination of the Big Apple.

Chad Wolf, the former acting Homeland Security Secretary, pointed out that Biden’s catch-and-release approach to illegal aliens is illegal. Wolf observes that Biden destroys incentives for lawful immigration now that one “can simply walk across the border in the middle of the desert and be allowed to stay in the United States.”

As declared by 19 state attorneys general in their amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court in U.S. v. Texas, “In the last 17 months, the volume of unlawful immigration has soared to levels unseen in the United States in decades – and, quite likely, ever. So too have the resulting burdens placed on the States.”

They add that “the current situation at the U.S.-Mexico border is an unmitigated disaster. The number of illegal crossings per month is at levels unseen in at least a generation.”

When referring to Republicans, Democrats talk about how no one is above law, yet Biden has acted unlawfully in letting illegal aliens in. He improperly set aside Trump Guidelines that blocked the unlawful border crossings by migrants.

New York City’s “Adams talked the talk about being a sanctuary city, welcoming illegal immigrants into the Big Apple with warm hospitality,” Texas Gov. Abbott points out. “Talk is cheap. When pressed into fulfilling such ill-considered policies, he wants to condemn anyone who is pressing him to walk the walk.”

“I hope he follows through on his promise of welcoming all migrants with open arms so that our overrun and overwhelmed border towns can find relief,” Gov. Abbott adds with a touch of humor. El Paso, a border city in Texas that prided itself as an Ellis Island of the southwest, is fully on board with Abbott now also.

New York City is flush with wealthy companies, many of the world’s richest people, and pompous politicians who promote its status as a sanctuary city. Yet it is reportedly straining under the influx of merely a tiny percentage of the illegals whom Biden is allowing to flood Texas, Arizona, and elsewhere.

Javier Villalobos, the Republican mayor of McAllen, Texas, observes about managing the illegals: “If we can do that, they can too. I know they can do it,” referring to New York City as it receives a relatively small handful of the overall total.

Biden halted work on President Trump’s border wall, and repealed Trump’s good “Remain in Mexico” policy. Biden deserves all the blame for this crisis.

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.

These columns are also posted on PhyllisSchlafly.com, pseagles.com, and Townhall.com.