OPINION:
Of all the elements thus far of President Biden’s leadership, none is more consequential than his decision to remove conventional barriers preventing unrestricted immigration. Witnessing the alarming effects of illegal entrants and drugs pouring into the nation, Americans are understandably incensed. But they are also mystified by the actions of a president seemingly intent on destroying their homeland. If Mr. Biden imagines he is serving some “greater good” more essential than the well-being of his citizens, he should not: He isn’t.
The president’s immigration blueprint released in 2021 affirmed, “The United States can have an orderly, secure, and well-managed border while treating people fairly and humanely.” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas virtually high-fived himself on Wednesday, reporting to Congress that the U.S. has “effectively managed an unprecedented number of non-citizens seeking to enter the United States.”
Americans have witnessed something entirely different. They have seen Mr. Biden deliberately light up a bright “vacancy” sign on Hotel America, visible around the globe. And they have watched Biden invitees from every corner of the globe arrive in larger numbers nearly every month since. Law enforcement encounters surpassed a record 221,000 in March, according to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, placing the volume on track to top 2 million by September.
The president has upped the immigration ante by planning to end so-called Title 42, a Trump-era protocol allowing for rapid expulsion of immigrants during the COVID-19 emergency. Fortunately, a federal court has temporarily blocked Mr. Biden plan, pending a hearing scheduled for May 13. Without the public-health restriction, border officials have forecast a tripling of illegal entrants to more than 6 million annually.
Americans are understandably anticipating the human wave with dread. A recent Gallup Poll finds 41% of respondents saying they worry “a great deal” about illegal immigration, the highest proportion in 15 years. Those expressing at least “a fair amount” of concern about illegal immigration measure 60%.
How, then, could Mr. Biden and his loyalists rationalize a policy that is so clearly destructive to the United States? Perhaps only by adopting the view that “we the people” must forfeit the constitutionally promised “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in order that others might enjoy “the American dream.”
In accordance with his immigration blueprint to “better manage migration across the Hemisphere,” Mr. Biden has, in effect, defined unrestrained illegal immigration as the “greater good.” Averting his gaze from the resulting destruction to person and property, the president keeps his attention locked on his own supposed virtue and the assumption that Americans will thank him — someday.
Meanwhile, the collateral damage from the president’s policies mounts, measuring in the billions of tax dollars spent on immigrant benefits and in the 100,000 annual overdose deaths resulting from the fentanyl arriving with the “uninvited guests.”
Only a goofy sense of the “greater good” could engender a policy so attractive to illegal immigrants and so destructive to Americans.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.