Image Credit: U.S. Customs and Border Protection / Facebook
by Jessica Vaughan, Director of Policy Studies at The Center for Immigration Studies –
The reckless border policies implemented by the Biden-Harris administration have proven disastrous for many American communities, and they will feel the effects for years to come.
Since 2021, well over seven million inadmissible migrants have been allowed to enter the country: four million were released after crossing illegally; about 800,000 were let in after making an appointment to cross the border without a visa using the CBP1 phone app; about 530,000 have flown in from abroad under the auspices of illegal parole programs, and another two million “gotaways” who successfully evaded the Border Patrol.
The Biden administration has issued work permits to certain new arrivals, but few are self-sufficient, with many laboring in low-wage jobs. Significant numbers (including Cubans, Haitians, and Ukrainians) can qualify for welfare benefits immediately, while many others will become eligible in 2026.
The influx has caused housing shortages, labor market disruptions, strains in the public schools and hospitals, and carries an enormous price tag. About 400,000 of the new arrivals are unaccompanied children – most of whom the government has now lost track of after releasing them to unvetted, and usually illegally-resident sponsors. Taxpayers have been shelling out more than one billion dollars a year to support the new migrants in some of the harder-hit states.
Besides the enormous fiscal costs the Biden-Harris open-door policies have enriched the criminal cartels in Mexico that control the border crossing areas, and allowed established transnational gangs like MS-13 and 18th Street to expand their membership and their deviant activities.
We also have new gangs to contend with, like Tren de Aragua, whose operatives crashed our border in plain sight along with hundreds of thousands of other Venezuelans who all now enjoy protection from deportation, not to mention protection from law enforcement agencies thanks to sanctuary jurisdictions and Biden-Harris enforcement-suppression policies.
Most disturbing, the open borders have enabled human trafficking to flourish in our country like never before, whether in the form of sex trafficking of duped Venezuelan women out of cheap motels in Middle Tennessee, or in the form of child labor trafficking used to make car parts in Alabama and packaging name-brand breakfast cereal in Michigan.
States are not helpless in the face of this sabotage of our immigration system. They can pass laws or enact policies, as Florida has done, to discourage illegal settlement and punish the criminal activities that support illegal immigration.
States can crack down on illegal employment, not only by mandating E-Verify, but by getting tough on identity theft, enforcing state labor laws, and holding employers accountable for labor trafficking and exploitation that they profit from. They can deny public benefits, and even the ability to wire money overseas to those here illegally.
States and localities can combat the new transnational gang threats by prohibiting sanctuary policies, and use zoning laws to prevent the establishment of migrant housing and seize properties used for human trafficking.
Even with new leadership in Washington, the federal government will not have adequate resources to quickly reverse the effects of this unprecedented mass illegal migration. State and local leaders will have to step in, either as partners in restoring the rule of law, or to protect their constituents by pushing back on these misguided illegal resettlement schemes.
***Meet Jessica and hear her speak on “Immigration Policy – Gangs, Human Trafficking And State Options” at the Maury County Republican Party Meeting on September 26th, 2024. Details HERE!
One Response
Thanx Jessica.