OPINION:
U.S. immigration policy, circa 2022, is a study in absurdity. When the ancient Romans grappled with their own bewildering world, they credited forces beyond ordinary ken to the handiwork of the gods. Janus was a particularly useful deity, symbolizing broad abstractions like change and transitions and concrete structures in the form of doorways and gates. That archaic entity could serve aptly as a symbol in President Biden’s America, where open-door immigration is transforming the nation into a global haven for refugees.
The Department of Homeland Security this month enumerated its dismal failure to secure the homeland. In December, the department logged nearly 180,000 encounters with illegal immigrants at the southern border, boosting the total for 2021 to 2 million. Nearly half hailed not from Central America but more than 100 other foreign lands.
These Biden-era numbers are shocking, but they shouldn’t be: The president’s immediate halt to construction of the border wall and subsequent dropping of former President Donald Trump’s “remain in Mexico” protocols were more than enough to release the floodgates of northbound humanity.
Not coincidentally, Biden Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has left Americans vulnerable to all manner of mischief since he declared in September that immigrants should no longer be deported simply because they have entered the U.S. illegally.
Even under court order to reinstitute “remain in Mexico,” an overwhelmed border security apparatus reportedly released 55,000 illegals into the U.S. anyway — in December alone. And another 400,000 foreign nationals are reckoned to have slipped into the U.S. during fiscal 2021, fanning out to communities across the nation. Gathered together, they would constitute a city larger than Cincinnati.
With these elusive migrants have come deadly fentanyl and other illegal drugs that have killed more than 100,000 Americans during the past year. Jarringly, fentanyl overdose is now the leading cause of death for 18- to 45-year-olds. Unknown is the number of incoming sojourners carrying another deadly threat: the COVID-19 disease that has killed more than 870,000 Americans. Testing of the apprehended is spotty and nonexistent among the “got-aways.”
“The Biden administration is helping to smuggle people into this country,” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick declared to Fox News Wednesday. “And it is for a purpose: They want them to become citizens. They want them to vote one day because they see that as a grab of power, and they don’t care who dies on the way.”
It’s no wonder that 59% of likely voters in this nation of legal immigrants responded to a recent Rasmussen poll by saying the government is doing too little to reduce illegal border crossings. Only 14% contended the feds are doing too much, and 19% rated the level of enforcement about right.
Janus, that forgotten member of the Roman pantheon, was depicted in ancient art with two faces, looking into both the past and the future. With his duplicitous and transformative immigration policy, Americans have their own two-faced potentate: Joe “Janus” Biden.
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