OPINION:
President Joe Biden told wanna-be border crossers to wait a bit — don’t come just yet — and with that, opened the doors wide for border crossers. He created this mess. He’s to blame.
It was the caveat in his messaging that counted most.
To the masses, the memo was: Don’t worry; you’ll get in. Eventually, you’ll get in.
“Incoming Biden administration to migrant caravan: Don’t come, you won’t get in immediately,” as NBC News wrote it, in a mid-January headline.
And now there are 4,200 or so unaccompanied migrant minors in the hands of Border Patrol, many of whom have been shifted to Federal Emergency Management Agency oversight for sheltering and feeding. Which is to say: Taxpayers are paying. Which is to wonder: How many are carrying the coronavirus?
This is Biden’s fault.
Biden campaigned on overturning the comparatively stricter, stronger border controls from the previous Donald Trump administration. Biden campaigned against the border wall, against the “cages” that held illegal crossers, against the whole idea of law and order and proper processing of incomers — against all that was intrinsic to the prior administration’s America First and national security policies.
Now kids are clamoring to get inside America.
And it has to be wondered: Are they serving the interests of the drug cartels and traffickers? Of course, the Biden administration isn’t wondering all that.
“Now, Biden is working to strike a balance between promoting a more humane approach to immigration while sending the message to would-be migrants not to come,” CNN wrote.
Well, that message’s been lost — if it ever indeed was found at all. After all, telling people who are clamoring to get into America to be patient and wait a bit isn’t quite the same as telling them explicitly not to come — and then underscoring that explicit warning with the tasking of law enforcement to round up the violators. The first says “weakness”; the second, “strength.”
The first says wishy-washy; the second, anything but.
The first is a message with a wink — and that’s exactly how it’s been received by those living points south of America.
“It’s going to be very difficult to stop this,” one Homeland Security official watching the flow of children to U.S. borders told CNN.
Indeed, it will.
Indeed, it will be very difficult to stop the flow of minors and illegals to America’s borders — simply because Biden has no will to stop the flow.
He created this border mayhem by talking out both sides of his mouth. He created this border mayhem by refusing to uphold law and order. He created this border mayhem by sending a message, even before he took office, that the Trump days of demanding lawful entry and of holding unlawful entrants accountable were coming to an end.
Biden is to blame for the border chaos.
And now legal American citizens must suffer the consequences.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.
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