Just say no to bailing out Biden’s border crisis
Washington Examiner
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Democrats around the country are begging President Joe Biden for more federal money to help them house, clothe, feed, and educate the floods of immigrants overwhelming their communities.
Biden has responded by asking Congress for $4 billion. Under no circumstance should congressional Republicans give Biden his border bailout unless he first agrees to reverse his failed border policies completely.
One of Biden’s most outspoken critics on border security has become New York City Mayor Eric Adams. He has learned firsthand that when a president doesn’t enforce immigration laws, every community is a border community. It is estimated that New York will spend $5 billion this year alone on the immigrants who come to New York after Biden catches and releases them into the country.
After Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas sent Adams a letter last week telling him how New York could better handle the immigrants streaming into his city, Adams responded, “Any plan that does not include stopping the flow at the border is a failed plan.”
He is right. Spending more money on housing, food, and healthcare will attract more migrants. The only way to solve the problem is to stop letting migrants in.
Asked to respond to Adams’s comment, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told the press corps, “We are stopping the flow at the border. … Indeed, the data is showing that [Biden’s plan] is indeed stopping, slowing down the flow of unlawful migration.”
Nothing could be further from the truth. The month before Biden took office, fewer than 74,000 immigrants were arrested after illegally crossing the southern border. That number immediately started rising as Biden dismantled former President Donald Trump’s effective border policies, including “Remain in Mexico,” and by March, border arrests had jumped to over 173,000. More than 6 million migrants have since been arrested for illegal crossings, and Biden has released millions of them into the United States.
After Title 42 expired this May, and Biden implemented a new plan that includes (illegally) paroling migrants into the U.S. while flying some back to their home country, arrests fell from 206,701 to 144,566. But that 144,566 is still a crisis number. Border communities don’t have the infrastructure to handle such throngs.
Worse, the numbers shot back up again in July to 183,503. And now there are leaked numbers showing another steep increase in August (the official numbers will not be released until later this month). Contra Jean-Pierre, the data do not show that the flow is slowing down. In fact, they show the opposite is true.
The most sickening part of this whole story is that Biden is now trying to hold disaster relief funding for the Maui wildfire and Hurricane Idalia hostage in exchange for $4 billion on immigration.
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There are a lot of moving parts in the showdown between Biden and House Republicans over keeping the government open, funding the war in Ukraine, and getting disaster relief to Florida and Hawaii. Compromises will and must be made on both sides.
But under no circumstances whatsoever should a single cent be authorized for Biden’s immigration spending wish list. This is a crisis entirely of his own creation, and it would be a dereliction of duty for Republicans to throw money at the problem blindly without holding Biden accountable for his “catch and release” border policies.