Let the gaslighting begin; a toothless border plan is about to be foisted on America

(Photo credit: Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection).

President Biden tried his level best for more than three years to make the obvious crisis at the U.S. border with Mexico seem like a non-problem.

He thought so little about the border that he assigned Vice-President Harris to be a so-called border czar, a task she promptly shunned and has never taken a meaningful step toward addressing. Biden is apparently onboard with her non-approach.

Biden has suddenly discovered that 2024 is an election year, and, while he wanted the border issue to simply go away, it is a festering wound on the nation and is now being felt in more than just Texas (a state he disdains).

Now members of both parties, mayors, governors, and members of Congress are claiming to have recognized the need for “comprehensive” border reform. 

The term “comprehensive” is usually code-word for a big fat fuzzy nothing. It has no meaning so it allows Democrats to claim to want it knowing they will never have to pursue it or be compelled to pass something meaningful into law.

Biden can do something about the border now to improve security at little or no cost.

Consider what he did instead:

·      He ended building of the wall.

·      He ended stay-in-Mexico.

·      He ended Title 42 --- fighting hard for the cessation.

·      We don’t know that he is enforcing Title 8 that allows for 5 or 10 year bans on reentry of those deported.

·      Biden fought hard, all the way to the Supreme Court, to be able to cut razor wire emplaced by the Texas governor.

In December 2023, more than 302,000 encounters with illegal migrants at the southern border took place. This is highest number ever recorded in the history of such records by the Border Patrol.

Supposedly to combat this monstrous number, the Senate negotiated behind closed doors and are apparently poised to present a plan.

The plan, some are saying, would mandate border closure if the average daily crossings exceeded 5,000 over seven days, or 8,500 in one day. The plan does not address the presidential power of parole (letting people in willy-nilly) at all. Wonder if that loophole will ever be abused.

It should be noted that former members of Democrat administrations knew there was a border problem even when the numbers were much smaller.

Obama’s former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson commented  on March 19, 2019 that “there were 4,000 apprehensions. I know that 1,000 [apprehensions] overwhelms the system and I cannot begin to imagine what 4,000 a day looks like,” he said.

We are well past that point. Someone will note that was during the Trump administration. The difference is that President Trump was taking active steps to reduce that number. Biden wants it to continue.

The Senate plan simply enshrines the problem and is effectively saying to the nation there is almost nothing we can do about illegal migration so let’s just throw up some temporary roadblocks occasionally to appease the masses.

It effectively empowers the president to do whatever the heck he wants.  Just like now.

It is just an election year gimmick by the Democrats (with some help from a few Republicans).

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James Hutton is a former assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and is a retired colonel in the U.S. Army. Follow him on X @jehutton.