OPINION:
The immigration overhaul proposed in the Senate seeks to fix that with a $118 billion legislative spending package that would allow illegal border crossings by the millions to continue. House Republicans are right to declare the measure dead on arrival.
The 370-page measure unveiled Sunday would reduce the flow of illegal immigrants to an average of 5,000 per day before President Biden and his successors are empowered — but not required — to close the border. The president already has that power under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
It’s a telling example of Washington’s upside-down priorities that the Senate would consider a measure that gives a free pass to as many as 1.8 million people to enter the country illegally each year while increasing the annual number of legal immigrants by a mere 50,000. Negotiator Sen. James Lankford, Oklahoma Republican, insists that other expulsion provisions would keep the cross-border flow under control. In theory, at least.
The legislation, cooked up in the dark of night, contains provisions its supporters claim are essential to control immigration, including more funds for border barriers, Border Patrol officers and immigration adjudication. It also includes nearly $87 billion the president wants to send to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan as they struggle to fend off their respective foes.
Law-abiding Americans have marveled at the Biden-era spectacle of some 10 million foreigners skipping across the border, with a large number gaining asylum. The proper number of foreign nationals allowed entry without proper justification is zero.
That’s because orderly civilization depends on the rule of law. Granting legal exemption to certain classes of foreign citizens doesn’t simply invite disorder — it institutionalizes it. Recently, televised images of young men from Venezuela attacking New York City police officers, then flashing a middle-finger salute after their arrest and release, serve as a jarring symbol of their disrespect for a nation they intend to call home.
To restore some semblance of decorum, Mr. Biden doesn’t need new authority or the money for which he persistently begs. He merely needs to enforce statutes he has purposely trampled on from his first day in the Oval Office up to the present. If he has refused for three years to perform his duty to safeguard the nation, what assurance do Americans have that he would honor it now? Also zero.
Americans have a heart for human need, demonstrated by upward of $500 billion they donate annually to all manner of charity — even in the economy-crushing pandemic year of 2022. The president’s open-border policies, however, are triggering an understandable annoyance with foreigners who demonstrate their gratitude for our country’s generosity by showing up unannounced on Main Street with palms outstretched.
A YouGov survey released last week is telling. Among U.S. adult citizens queried, 37% said immigration makes the U.S. worse off; 31% said it makes the nation better. And 18% said immigration doesn’t make much difference. Notably, the question prompting the anti-immigration outcome didn’t even mention the world illegal.
President Biden’s unprincipled failure to safeguard the U.S. border while hectoring Americans to provide for the borders of Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan is driving Americans to distraction. The Senate bill is likely going nowhere, and that’s as it should be.
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