President Joe Biden’s refusal to secure the southern border has become a major liability even within his own party. But as the leader of the Democratic Party, and therefore beholden to the far Left, he is refusing to use the authority he wields to address the crisis and instead wants Republicans and Mexico to bail him out.
Instead of ordering Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to ramp up immigration enforcement and discourage border crossings, Biden is trying to get Mexico to take on the bulk of border enforcement while he negotiates a deal with Republicans in Congress that includes funding for Ukraine and Israel.
Border crossings are at an all-time high. U.S. Border Patrol is recording 10,000 illegal entry encounters at the southern border per day, and almost none of them are being returned to their native country. Instead, under a policy implemented by the Biden administration, they are being allowed to stay.
Biden was able to ignore the issue as long as it was contained to the border states, but when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began busing border crossers to Democratic-run cities such as New York City, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, it brought the border crisis to the president’s political backyard.
But despite the chaos the influx of illegal immigrants has caused to the infrastructure of these cities, the mayors don’t want a change in policy. They just want more money and for the thousands of migrants to be granted legal status.
“It’s both a humanitarian and fiscal crisis,” Mike Johnston, the mayor of Denver, said. “As mayors, we are so frustrated. … This is actually a solvable problem if we had work authorization, federal dollars, and a coordinated entry plan.”
The problem for Biden is that he’s running for reelection and poll after poll show that immigration and the border is a major political liability for him. But if he cracks down on immigration enforcement, he risks alienating his radical far-left base that supports open borders.
Instead of taking responsibility for the crisis that has occurred on his watch and enact different policies to curb the influx of illegal immigrants, Biden is trying to get others to bail him out.
Domestically, the White House has softened its stance on immigration enforcement and border security as Republicans in Congress attempt to extract concessions from the president in exchange for aid funding for Ukraine and Israel.
And internationally, Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are urging Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to take stronger measures to prevent illegal border crossings from the Mexican side. (A shrewd negotiator, Obrador says he wants $20 billion from the U.S. and amnesty for 10 million illegal immigrants in exchange for helping Biden.)
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By turning to the Mexican government and begrudgingly negotiating with Republicans, Biden is trying to avoid the reality that his own policies created the immigration crisis that has befallen many of the nation’s cities and the border states.
This is nothing but an electoral ploy. The president is running for reelection, and his immigration policies are not popular. Instead of reversing course and closing the southern border, he wants to keep the border open while neutralizing the issue as a political liability.