President Joe Biden informed Congress in a letter this week of plans to end Proclamation 9844 that declared a national emergency along the nation’s southern border in February 2019. The letter states:
“I have determined that the declaration of a national emergency at our southern border was unwarranted. I have also announced that it shall be the policy of my Administration that no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall, and that I am directing a careful review of all resources appropriated or redirected to that end.”
Unwarranted? How about allowing thousands of illegal immigrants per month to enter the United States? Is that warranted?
This month, an estimated 25,000 asylum seekers in Mexico will be allowed into the United States — and these are immigrants legally entering the nation under Biden’s new plans. Add those who are already in the country and those who will enter the nation illegally no longer being deported, and we are creating a refugee crisis within our own borders.
Is this really a good spend in contrast with the “racist and wasteful” investment toward the border wall that Trump was accused of in his plans? Texas authorities have grown concerned enough to file a lawsuit and hold a hearing on stopping deportations, allowing the state to at least slow problems along the state’s 1,254-mile border with Mexico.
Opponents of former President Donald Trump’s national emergency policy note his action was taken in large part to provide funding toward the border wall via Homeland Security. These funds, they argue, should be used to focus on real security threats.
But we doubt those “real security threats” include tightening down on China’s infiltration or closely vetting immigrants from the Middle East nations included in Trump’s travel ban. Homeland Security might as well throw a welcome party for immigrants crossing the southern border so they can at least provide COVID-19 testing.
Instead, we’ll see a half-finished wall being walked around and jumped over as hundreds of immigrants per day openly shuffle into America without fear of deportation. Our nation will soon need more than Homeland Security to help, as we may have a full-blow humanitarian crisis on our hands.
And don’t forget, not everyone crossing into the United States if from Mexico or Honduras. Border Patrol continues to catch fence-jumpers from Iran, China, and other far-away destinations where visitors may have plans other than starting a better life.
On one hand, the sheer number of legal and illegal immigrants the Biden administration plans to allow into our country will be problematic. On the other hand, it will only take one bad guy to trigger an event that could exceed the last 9/11. Homeland Security was better off playing offense by building a wall than playing defense against tens or hundreds of thousands of unknown border-crossers. Regardless of whether Biden calls it a national emergency, it will soon become one if the situation doesn’t change.
