OPINION:
Nations that disintegrate suffer many pathologies, one of which is the deterioration of national territorial integrity.
The Biden administration is willfully eroding our southern border and consequently facilitating the disintegration of the American state.
The open border policy of Biden’s regime allows individuals from virtually every country in the world to simply walk across our southern border, between the ports of entry. One estimate is that there are almost 5 million people who have illegally entered the country since Biden’s inauguration.
On a recent trip to the border I took several congressional colleagues: Representatives Mark Green (R-TN), Tom McClintock (R-CA), Mike Flood (R-NE), and Matt Rosendale (R-MT). Every time my colleagues and I go to the border, the conditions have worsened.
As always, we observed the fence started by President Trump and abruptly halted by Biden. Gaps in the fence, at strategic locations, allow Mexican criminal organizations (cartels) to traffic people and drugs with impunity. In fact, in one location we spotted a cartel spy on a hill near a location where Biden had stopped fence construction.
The lack of a fence is deeply troubling. It’s why I’ve introduced legislation titled the Fund and Complete Border Wall Act so that we establish a separate account in the Treasury to hold deposits that can be used to add more fencing quickly. We cannot wait to act on it.
In Yuma, Arizona, the temperatures soared above 116 degrees one afternoon. We supposed that no one would cross during the desert heat, but we watched a family of three surrendering to our Border Patrol agents after simply walking across an unfenced area. Where were they from? Russia. And, no doubt they were released into the interior of the United States within a few days, without a COVID test, other medical tests, and adequate vetting of their backgrounds.
Only 11% of border crossers in the Yuma Sector are denied entry. The remaining 89% are ultimately processed and released into the United States. This indicates that illegal aliens with meritless asylum claims are allowed entry into our country. My Stopping Border Surges Act cracks down on this practice and helps promote increased integrity in the asylum system.
Once released, illegal aliens are flown or bussed throughout the country. They are allowed to work, go to school, and receive free medical care.
Again, in Yuma, the small city’s (population of about 100,000) regional hospital is having to absorb millions of dollars to care for the illegal aliens that find their way into the maternity ward and emergency department.
Every day at least ten illegal aliens enter the Yuma Regional Hospital emergency room. Another four to five women enter the maternity ward. These people are illegally in the United States and are transients moving through the Yuma community. The cost of medical services used through six months of 2022: $20.4 million. The Biden administration won’t pay it, and frankly doesn’t care about the financial distress being imposed on the Yuma hospitalor, any medical provider in any other American community.
The Biden regime has promoted the importation of illegally produced and transported drugs, including the lethal fentanyl. The result has been tens of thousands of deaths throughout the country. Record amounts of drugs have been interdicted, says Biden. But, the fact that we are only stopping about 10% of drugs coming into the country indicates that more deadly drugs than ever are flooding America thanks to Biden’s desire for open borders.
We have seen more individuals on the terrorist watch list caught. More people with violent criminal records have been arrested. More gang members, too. Many have been released into the country without restriction.
Even then, our ability to check backgrounds is almost exclusively limited to whether the individual has a U.S. criminal history. Most countries either don’t keep adequate or won’t share criminal histories with the United States.
The processing facility in Yuma is designed for 1,200 people. On the day we were there, a slow day, there were more than 2,300 people crammed in. Most would be released within 48 hours.
From midnight to 8:00 am there had already been more than 600 surrenders to the Border Patrol. Yuma had been hitting more than 1,000 encounters per day for the week before we arrived.
And, that’s only the number of people who were apprehended. Every day thousands of people sneak into the country. An estimated one million have covertly entered America under the Biden regime.
With it being so easy to enter the United States illegally under Biden, only the most nefarious of individuals, with the most malevolent intentions would feel impelled to sneak across and attempt to avoid arrest.
Who might these be? Drug traffickers, terrorists, human and sex traffickers. In other words, the worst of the worst.
If loss of territorial integrity is indicia of national disintegration, then the Biden team has strongly put forward evidence of its intention to attack the sovereignty and essence of the United States.
• Andy Biggs is a United States Representative from Arizona’s Fifth Congressional District. He serves as the co-chair of the Congressional Border Security Caucus as well as the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security on the House Judiciary Committee. He also serves on the House Oversight and Reform Committee and is the Vice Chair of the Congressional Western Caucus.
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