Biden’s border flip-flops are getting migrants killed
Conn Carroll
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A lot is being made of President Joe Biden’s flip-flop on the border wall. He campaigned saying he wouldn’t build another foot, now he is waiving 26 regulations to start building the wall again.
But while Biden definitely flip-flopped on wall construction, another 20 miles of border wall on a 1,954-mile border isn’t going to make a big difference.
The bigger flip-flop, the one that exposes the dishonest, incoherent cynicism of the Biden administration, came late Thursday when DHS announced they would be resuming deportation flights to Venezuela.
It was just two weeks ago that the Biden administration granted temporary protected status to 500,000 Venezuelan migrants already here in the United States. The entire legal basis for granting TPS, which gives migrants work permits, is that their home country has become so terrible and so dangerous that it would be inhumane to send them back.
When DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced the TPS status just two weeks ago, he said it was warranted because of “Venezuela’s increased instability and lack of safety due to the enduring humanitarian, security, political, and environmental conditions.”
“Temporary protected status provides individuals already present in the United States with protection from removal when the conditions in their home country prevent their safe return,” Mayorkas concluded.
Again, that was just two weeks ago.
Now we are told that the Department of Homeland Security has made an agreement with Venezuela’s government to start accepting deported migrants from the United States.
What exactly happened in the time between Sep. 20, when Mayorkas said Venezuela was not safe for migrants to be returned to, and Oct. 5, when DHS said they would be returning migrants to Venezuela?
Did Venezuela’s “instability and lack of safety” somehow magically disappear between Sep. 20 and Oct. 5?
No, of course not.
What did happen was that Biden’s failed border policies have put such an unprecedented strain on communities throughout the country that Democrats in those communities demanded action to relieve that pressure. So Biden granted TPS to Venezuelans on the theory that allowing them to work would take some financial burden off of local governments.
But giving Venezuelans work permits doesn’t change the fact that our country can’t afford the housing, food, healthcare, transportation, and education services these migrants all need.
Now that record numbers of Venezuelans are coming to the United States so they too can get TPS, Biden is now trying to send a signal that there is no guarantee he will let them all in. Hence the deportation announcement.
But even with the new deportation flights, Biden is still going to let most of them in, and the migrants know it. The friends and family Biden already let in and gave TPS to are telling them as much. These migrants are very much willing to take the small risk that Biden will send them back to Venezuela if it means a high probability Biden will let them in.
And even if Biden does send them back, their relatives already here in the United States can just send them more money to make the trip again.
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All of this travel across South America, Central America, and Mexico takes a real humanitarian toll. That is why the United Nations has awarded Biden’s border crisis with the designation of the deadliest land border in the world.
The only way to stop migrants from around the world, not just Venezuela, from coming is to not let them into the country. Until Biden reinstates the “Remain in Mexico” policy, or until he is voted out of office, the border crisis will only get worse.