OPINION:
The worst tragedies are the preventable ones. This month, a mother and two children drowned in the treacherous Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, attempting to cross into the U.S. illegally. The Biden administration was quick to blame the state of Texas, but the facts are clear: President Biden’s border policies are the direct cause of these and many other deaths at the border—and along the cartel-controlled journey to it.
In January, the Border Patrol received a call from Mexican authorities about migrants in distress. The Department of Homeland Security claims that Texas officials “physically barred” Border Patrol agents from attempting a rescue. A hastily released statement from DHS capitalized on the deaths to score some political points.
“The Texas governor’s policies are cruel, dangerous, and inhumane, and Texas’s blatant disregard for federal authority over immigration poses grave risks,” DHS told CNN.
But here are the facts. Texas authorities responded to the distress call immediately and searched their side of the river.
“At no time did [Texas Military Department] security personnel along the river observe any distressed migrants, nor did TMD turn back any illegal immigrants from the U.S. during this period,” a statement from Texas officials noted.
The real cause of these deaths, and many like them, is the Biden administration’s wide-open border. Even as it claims the moral high ground on immigration, its own policies are cruel—ceding control of the border and migration routes to the criminal cartels.
As the Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Henninger points out, the Biden administration has long ago “demolished the Democratic Party’s moral high ground on immigration,” adding that “Progressive Democrats have self-defined as pro-immigrant, but under real-world pressure, that stance turns out to be a fraud. The Biden administration’s see-and-do-nothing policy catastrophe—drownings, abandoned children, illegal migrants wandering the nation, a fentanyl-addiction crisis emerging alongside—has shocked most Americans.”
And that’s why the border has become Mr. Biden’s Achilles heel—even more than the sluggish economy and Mr. Biden’s all-of-government approach to wokeness. A new CBS News poll shows that 68% of Americans disapprove of Mr. Biden’s handling of the border.
“Most say the border situation is very serious, and nearly half now say it’s a crisis — up from May — a change in sentiment driven primarily by Democrats and independents,” CBS News adds. “As a result, President Biden’s approval on handing the U.S.-Mexico border has also dropped, and his approval on handling immigration in general is at an all-time low, though it hasn’t dragged down his overall approval rating.”
Perhaps that’s behind the Biden administration’s reported deal with the Mexican government—the corrupt Mexican regime’s “help” at the border just in time for the 2024 elections in exchange for $20 billion. Mexico’s president is also demanding the U.S. “grant visas to at least 10 million Hispanic migrants” as part of the deal.
Even Hispanic voters in the U.S. have had enough. A poll last summer showed that fully 71% of Hispanics say the country is “on the wrong track,” and 65% calling for more action to secure the border.
The route to Eagle Pass is dangerous; most females pay with their bodies, and the illegal immigration pipeline enriches criminal cartels. Yet the migrants still come—at the Biden administration’s invitation.
For now, the Biden administration will continue to play politics with lives at the border. But they deserve better—they deserve real compassion. And that’s not enhanced by open borders—just the opposite.
• The Honorable Robert Henneke is the Executive Director and General Counsel at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
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