The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
One of Joe Biden’s greatest failings as president of the United States has been to facilitate several times more illegal immigrants crossing the southern border than Donald Trump did. Among the consequences: thousands of migrant children pushed into unforgiving labor, border communities absolutely devastated and a recent record of 853 border-crossing migrants themselves dying from their desert treks, drowning, falling off cliffs and other accidents. Hardly least of the tragedies: 70,000 Americans killed by smuggled fentanyl.
Well, look, some Biden supporters have said, the fewer restrictions the better. That goal is coming about through the lapse of Title 42 that prevented entries for fear of COVID transmission. Will a surge of additional thousands pouring our way fill the supporters with joy because the poor receiving asylum are thereby rescued even if many don’t qualify, and is the harm to Americans something to ignore?
The Democrats among them might want to notice Eric Adams, the Democratic mayor of New York City now being bashed by endless migrant arrivals. He has caught onto what many border communities have been enduring. The supporters might also want to catch up on a Gallup poll showing 42 million Latin Americans want to live here in addition to vast numbers from around the world. There have to be limits.
And don’t forget there are perfectly acceptable, legal ways of entry, such as green visas in which immigrants line up jobs or have a family sponsor in America. Actually, out of fairness, there should be more chances for those with no relatives here. Merit should play a bigger role.
Trump initiated Title 42, applying the national health code to immigration rules. Biden decided to live with it but then tried to get rid of it with courts saying no. Now it’s expiring, trouble is at hand and Biden has been trying to accomplish in a matter of days what he should have started two years ago. In moves that in some ways imitate Trump initiatives he rejected, Biden now will allow no appeals for asylum from those who did not make such appeals to countries they passed through, it’s reported. Anyone who crosses the border without permission will be deported.
The value of these and other new restrictions? Well, a while back, Biden set a 20-year record for the number of crossings, helping to cause a mighty influx of migrant children arriving at the border without their parents. Something like 130,000 were released into the country last year, and as a New York Times story tells us, many have ended up doing backbreaking work, sometimes for well-known companies and breaking century-old laws. The Health and Human Services Department knows what’s going on in this area of its responsibilities and does little.
And please don’t forget the deaths of 70,000 mostly young Americans from fentanyl, a killer drug made in China and smuggled by cartels through Mexico even though some illogically dismiss it as a border issue. Their argument is that something like 80 percent of what assaults Americans arrives here through legal ports of entry in cars and trucks. That 20 percent is still killing thousands.
If Biden sticks to the best of his new ideas, backs off from some lenient plans and finally embraces common sense, the multitargeted threat of Title 42 collapse may ultimately have promoted the good.
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