Throughout the slow-burning self-immolation of the United States via absurd immigration policies, it has become a commonplace for those critical of this destruction to describe those who enter our country illegally as “uninvited.” This is a mistake. The evidence increasingly suggests otherwise, as decades of either naïve or radical leadership is openly inviting foreign nationals to storm our nation.
How else would one describe what is currently taking place? In recent testimony before a House oversight committee, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General Joseph Cuffari described the changing mission of Border Patrol in addressing the unprecedented surge at our southern border.
“They’re doing some law enforcement but they’re also providing care and welfare services to the detained and those individuals who they’re processing,” Cuffari said.
Some law enforcement? Providing welfare services? U.S. Customs and Border Protection, under which the Border Patrol operates, says on its website that the organization’s mission statement is to “protect the American people, safeguard our borders, and enhance the nation’s economic prosperity.” That sounds like an admirable mission, but the reality under the radical Biden Administration is that the Border Patrol is doing none of those things, and instead is throwing a welcoming party for millions of noncitizens who are breaking our federal laws on a daily basis.
There are endless examples nationwide of policies that serve to further entice migrants to violate our borders. While Texas Governor Greg Abbott has been valiant in his attempts to protect his state from the border surge, his Lone Star colleagues at the city and county levels are busy encouraging more illegal aliens to enter.
Houston’s Harris County recently passed a pilot universal basic income program that provides monthly checks of $500 for a year and a half, using $20.5 million allocated from the American Rescue Plan Act. The more than 1.6 million illegal aliens in the county would be eligible for the program. Are those here illegally more or less likely to come to Harris County with such a program in place? It is a clear incentive to make the journey north and set up camp in the county.
In Brownsville, deep in the border zone of South Texas, the city’s La Plaza parking garage has been converted into a welcome center for illegal aliens. Those arriving at the center receive free meals, shelter, clothing, showers and other amenities from a combination of workers from the city, non-governmental organizations, and charities.
This has gone beyond basic humanitarianism and is now about cities perversely competing to attract as many immigration violators as possible. Where does all of this lead? As the spectacular downfall of New York City in the Biden era has shown, advertising your city as a haven for illegal aliens means they will come in numbers great enough to render your community financially insolvent, overcrowded, and more dangerous.
Despite the observable and disastrous outcomes evident from the case studies of once-great, now failed sanctuary cities like New York and San Francisco, others are eagerly lining up for the same fate. While California has officially been a sanctuary state since 2017, Los Angeles had been a sanctuary city in name only. That changed last week, as the L.A. City Council unanimously codified the city’s sanctuary status. Los Angelenos seeking a safe, lawful community can hardly be sleeping better knowing that the city now officially forbids any of its employees to cooperate in the removal of criminal illegal aliens.
The effect of all this carrot-dangling by sanctuary communities is an extension of the Biden White House’s agenda to reinvent the public charge rule. Since colonial times, America has had a tradition of insisting that settlers and immigrants be self-sufficient and not taxpayer-dependent. Biden’s version of the rule specifies that green card applicants will not be penalized for using various public assistance programs. The inescapable result will be more illegal aliens applying for more public benefits.
While hiding behind a fig leaf of faux compassion, Biden’s rule is poison to America’s future. It dramatically powers up the magnet that pulls an endless flow of migrants to enter the country illegally. At a time when America runs up unsustainable debt and prints what amounts to Monopoly money, the deluge of migrants and their consumption of benefits put even more strain on our teetering economy. That deluge has also resulted in unlivable conditions in most of our cramped, decaying urban centers.
The defiance of or silent refusal to enforce our federal laws on immigration are a blaring invitation to the rest of the world to violate our national sovereignty. The deluge is not “uninvited.” Rather, it is a result of the reckless agenda from those in power who claim to be protecting us.