Leftists are attempting to blame the U.S. immigration problems on Republicans for not accepting the recent border bill; the issue could still be fixed if the politicians actually wanted it to be
by Edward Ulrich, February 10, 2024
Image from Wikipeida.
Introduction
Throughout the duration of the Biden administration the Democrats were claiming that there wasn’t a crisis on the U.S. border. However now they are saying that there is a crisis but it’s Donald Trump’s fault because he urged Republicans not to sign a recent supposedly “bipartisan” bill, which the Democrats are touting as something that would have fixed the border situation.
The bill contained a long list of outrageously unacceptable provisions that ensured that the Republicans would not vote for it.
But at the same time the bill also contained some provisions that made it appear as if it could have been an effective solution to the problem, such as supposedly largely reducing the amount of asylum claims that would have been granted for example— which is an aspect of the bill that the Establishment media has been reporting in an attempt to make the Republicans seem to be at fault in the situation.
It would be a simple matter to fix that situation however— where Republicans could make a list of the aspects of the bill that they don’t like, those aspect could be changed or removed, and then the bill could be voted on again. Problem solved!
But the real problem is that most of both the Democrats and Republicans don’t actually want the border problem to be fixed because almost all of them work for the same global elite who want open borders. (link) If the politicians actually wanted to do something about the open borders they would have done so a long time ago.
In fact, rather than making efforts to adjust the bill and re-vote on it for an effective result, the Democrats are now threatening to make the border problem even worse due to the supposedly “uncooperative” Republicans, as this article explains.
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Following are examples of the Democrats attempting to blame the border situation on Republicans:
Statements by Joe Biden claiming that the Republicans rejected the bill simply because they wanted to “weaponize” the problem for political gain
In a press conference (found on this Breitbart article), Biden said the following:
“We’re seeing statements about how many people oppose the bill now. Look, I understand the former president is desperately trying to stop this bill, because he’s not interested in solving the border problem, he wants a political issue to run against me on. … Across the board no one really denies that, that I’m aware of. .. Republicans have to decide, who do they serve? Donald Trump, or the American people? Are they here to solve problems, or just weaponize problems for political purposes? I know my Answer. … Just months ago the Republicans were asking for this exact bill to deal with the border. [Note it is certainly NOT the “exact bill” that they were asking for! Here is what the Republicans actually wanted (also see this link).] Now its here, and they are saying “Never mind.” Folks, we’ve go to move past this toxic politics. … Every day between now and November the people are going to know that the only reason that the border is not secure is Donald Trump, and his MAGA Republican friends.”
[Note: In this USA Today article he claims that he will “hit Trump every day over the southern border.”
If Biden actually believed what he is saying, he would “call the bluff” of the Republicans and ask them what they don’t like about the bill, change those aspects, and have it voted on again.]
Statements by the White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claiming that the problems at the border since the beginning of the Biden Administration have been because of “Republicans purposely getting in the way of trying to fix what is happening at the border”
In this recent press conference, Karine Jean-Pierre said the following:
“It’s been three years. Three whole years. More than three years. More than a thousand days. And, this is a difficult issue, obviously. This is a difficult issue. And what we have said is that Congress has to act. … But in those three years it is true that Republicans have gotten in the way, … they have consistently used the broken immigration system as a political stunt. That’s what they’ve done. They’ve gotten in the way of getting more border patrol agents. They’ve gotten in the way of actually trying to fix what is happening, the challenges at the border. .. House Republicans have purposely gotten in the way of trying to fix what is happening at the border.”
[Note: Karine Jean-Pierre has always been an outrageously dishonest Press Secretary. I think the fact that her name is not easily memorable by most people is a factor that helps her to get away with it.
See this article which details the history of the Biden Administration undermining border security.]
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An example of how the political Establishment is claiming that the bill would be effective (with rebuttals)
In this video, Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema speaks with CBS News explaining the “compromise” border deal which she helped to draft along with Connecticut Democrat Senator Chris Murphy, and Oklahoma Republican Sentor James Lankford. In her interview, Sinema claims, “I agree, the crisis on our border is a national security threat”— where she says her supposed “compromise” will significantly reduce the amount of asylum claims that are allowed.
Following is partial transcript of the interview:
“… We’ve all seen [reports] of large numbers of migrants … approaching the border and being processed and released into the country, sometimes with a piece of paper called “a notice to appear,” where they may see a judge in 5, 7, [or] 10 years, no one knows. Our law changes that and ends the practice of catch and release, so when people approach the border and say they want to enter our country to seek asylum, they will go into one of two situations.
First, short-term detention which means we take them into custody and actually do an interview right then and there to determine if they meet the standard for asylum. For individuals who do not meet that standard, which by the way Margaret, is most of the migrants who are coming to our country right now, they will be swiftly returned to their home country.
And for folks that we can’t detain, like families for instance, we’ll insure that we are supervising them over the course of just three months, and conduct that interview with that new higher standard requiring them to show more proof early on about whether or not they quality for asylum, and return them to their country if they do not have the evidence or the proof that they qualify for asylum. So we’ll no longer have people just entering the country and maybe going to court in the next seven or ten years.
Instead we’ll make swift justice, folks who do qualify for asylum will be on a rapid path— six months or less to start a new life in America. And those who do not qualify will quickly be returned to their home country. …”
Following is a summary of some of the REBUTTALS to Sinema’s claims in the above video from this Breitbart article. (Note that the article also contains more information as well.)
— Sinema said that migrants with children will not be detained at the border, so the supposed “curb” would roll back the current law that requires all migrants seeking asylum to be held until their asylum pleas are decided, which is a huge court-created loophole that is being exploited by men who bring their children or the children of others for the purpose of being released from detention.
— Sinema said migrants would be released under electronic surveillance, which will allow the migrants to get jobs that they need to pay back their high-interest loans to smugglers and cartels. If instead migrants would not be released, few would try to take out loans and mortgages to make the trek, leading to the number at the border collapsing.
— Since the bill is intended to greatly accelerate the process of deciding asylum claims, the number of people actually receiving asylum could remain the same or increase even thought the criteria has been tightened. For example, if the new curbs reduce the approval rate by 50 percent while the number being processed is doubled, then the amount of migrants who get asylum would be unchanged.
— Biden’s administration is ignoring the “shall” detain law by claiming that Congress does not provide it with enough funding to detain the migrants. However the administration also transfers billions of dollars a year to transport and house the migrants that should be detained by law.
— Sinema is saying that the bill tightens the rules for awarding asylum, however it likely would not curb UN-mandated treaties such as the alternative “Convention Against Torture” sidedoor that allows migrants to live and work in the United States.
— Biden’s border chief has established a process called the “Asylum Officer Rule,” that allows low-ranking government officials to award asylum — and citizenship — during a brief review at the border.” This new process is not being implemented yet, but it would be implemented under the bill which would allow Biden’s deputies to hire pro-migration advocates who would almost certainly rubber-stamp supposed “asylum claims” without the oversight of the nation’s asylum judges.
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A summary of a February 4, 2023 Breitbart article: “Border ‘Shutdown’ Rule Is Optional, Loopholed, Temporary Distraction”
Following is a summary of this Breitbart article:
This article explains issues with the “compromise” immigration bill, including the fact that a clause specifies that a much touted “border shutdown” would not be activated unless the President’s homeland security says so, and it essentially would have no impact anyway because the law creates an entirely new fast-track, rubber-stamp asylum process that would put millions of economic migrants on a rapid path to citizenship and voting.
— A clause buried on page 119 of the 280 page bill specifies that the much touted “border shutdown” would not be activated unless the President’s homeland security says so, where it says, “Whenever the border emergency authority is activated, the Secretary shall have the authority, in the Secretary’s sole and unreviewable discretion, to summarily remove from and prohibit, in whole or in part, entry into the United States of any alien identified in subsection (a)(3) who is subject to such authority in accordance with this subsection.”
— The loophole converts the supposedly “mandatory” shutdown into a conditional presidential policy option that can only be activated when there are many more migrants than even the border emergency that was declared by Donald Trump during his first term.
— By rising the required numbers and adding multiple exemptions, it makes it far more difficult for a president to declare a border shutdown, which is the reverse of what media coverage have been saying during the past few days.
— Biden has been publicly claiming that he would “shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed”, but the legislation shows that the “mandatory” trigger would rarely be pulled, it discounts many migrants, it will expire in three years, and it would have no impact anyway because the law creates an entirely new fast-track, rubber-stamp asylum process that would put millions of economic migrants on a rapid path to citizenship and voting.
— On page 117, the bill lists exceptions for the “mandatory” trigger, including a catch-all phrase exemption “a process approved by the Secretary”:
(C) An unaccompanied alien child.
(F) An alien who has a valid visa or other lawful permission to enter the United States, including— … (iv) an alien who presents at a port of entry pursuant to a process approved by the Secretary to allow for safe and orderly entry into the United States.
(D) An alien who an immigration officer determines, with the approval of a supervisory immigration officer, should be excepted from the border emergency authority based on the totality of the circumstances …
— … Section (F) would exempt the “parole” migrants that Biden’s deputies are importing despite the existing laws.
— In 2023, Biden imported over one million parole migrants who would not be covered by a border shutdown, and he also imported more than 50,000 “Unaccompanied Alien Children” who would not be covered by the shutdown trigger,
— The law also says that during the supposed “mandatory” shutdowns, the border agents at the official “Ports of Entry” must still process at least 1,400 migrants per days.
— On page 119, the bill allows the border chief (currently Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas), the “sole and unreviewable discretion” to ignore the clause, even when the inflow rises above 5,000 or 8,500.
— The bill creates “asylum corps” that has the authority to quickly provide migrants with green cards, even without facing a trained judge in independent asylum courts.
— The legislation provides money to hire more than 4,000 asylum officers, likely from the investor-funded pro-migration advocacy groups.
— Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema who was involved with drafting the bill was interviewed by CBS’s “Face the Nation” where she attempted to use the triggers to placate voters.
— The RINO Republican Senator James Lankford who was involved with drafting the bill touted the emergency authority without noting the exemption or the secretary’s “sole and unreviewable” authority to not use the authority.
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See this Daily Caller article that interviews numerous Border Patrol Agents who criticize the Senate funding bill, where they explain how the legislation would allow the “catch and release” situation to continue, among other issues. (Found via BorderHawk.News.)
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Also see these articles for examples of the political Establishment attempting to blame Republicans for the border problems:
“The Recount”, Feb 7, 2024, “Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) rips into Republicans tanking border deal: ‘Take your political theater to Texas.’” (link)
“azcentral”, Feb 7, 2024, “The big lie about letting in 5,000 migrants a day will kill Sen. Sinema’s border bill” (link)
“Time”, Feb 6, 2024: “Biden Urges GOP Leaders to ‘Show a Little Spine’ and Stand Up To Trump on Border Bill” (link)