Immigration, Our National Disgrace - 7/21/2022

In my opinion, President Biden is a terrible President. He's not just bad, he's inept. What are his weak areas? Everything. All of them. He's terrible. And what is his biggest failure? Energy? It's bad, but no. Inflation? Worst in 40 years. No again. Foreign policy? Afghan withdrawal? Education? Nope, no, nah.

Immigration and handling of migrants entering illegally is the topper. I saw one projection that we are on track for 6 million illegal immigrants by the end of the President's term in January of 2025. To put 6 million into perspective, here are the US most populous cities in 2022, according to the Census Bureau:

1. New York City, NY (Population: 8,622,357)
2. Los Angeles, CA (Population: 4,085,014)
3. Chicago, IL (Population: 2,670,406)
4. Houston, TX (Population: 2,378,146)
5. Phoenix, AZ (Population: 1,743,469)
6. Philadelphia, PA (Population: 1,590,402)
7. San Antonio, TX (Population: 1,579,504)
8. San Diego, CA (Population: 1,469,490)
9. Dallas, TX (Population: 1,400,337)
10. San Jose, CA (Population: 1,036,242)

So 6 million is more than the population of any US city except New York. 6 million is greater than the population of 31 states was in 2021. Conversely, or another way to put it, only 19 states have a population of 6 million or more. 6 million is approximately equal to the population of Maryland or Missouri.

We don't have infrastructure for these people. We don't have the legal capacity (courtrooms, judges, law enforcement, etc.) to process them even if we did. I remember an old cliche, one you may not be familiar with, maybe you are. It says, "If you owe the bank $10,000.00 and you can't pay it back, you're in trouble. If you owe the bank $10,000,000.00 and you can't pay it back, the banker is in trouble." 100,000 people entering our country illegally is far too many. 1.5 million per year? Beyond unmanageable by several magnitudes.

Our leadership has failed us on this. Congress... fail. DHS... fail. CBP... fail. President Biden? Massive massive massive fail. During a Democratic Presidential Debate in 2020, Biden went along with all the other candidates, saying people here illegally should be entitled to taxpayer funded healthcare. Yeah, he did. So don't even try to tell me he didn't roll out the welcome mat and turn on the neon "come on over" signs. Fail, fail, fail, fail. He put Vice President Kamala Harris in charge of the border, remember? Fail.

Before I close by stating my own proposals, let me state for the record. I do not dislike immigrants, Mexican, other Hispanics or any other on the basis of nationality, race, or religion. LGBTQ+ etc, etc. Good people are good people. Bad are bad, it cuts across oll demographics. Because of the sheer numbers, it is imperative to state explicitly again though, that I do not hate Mexican or other Hispanic people. I truly believe that like anyone else, the majority of immigrants are good people looking to better their lives. But like the $10k vs. $10 mil cliche, with as many as 6 million illegal immigrants in 4 years, we are in trouble. It is a broken dam and we are downstream being flooded. It's a major problem.

What do I propose? And, by the way, I wish Republicans, who at least would seem to align more closely with my views, would make some real proposals on the issue. They won't. Because they suck. Short of hanging out the welcome sign like Biden and the Democrats have, Republicans are still a major problem here. It takes two to tango, and our failed leadership in D.C. are doing a two party shuffle dance that is far more spasmodic than rhythmic.

1. Build a wall. Yes, with doors and a way in, but channel people to entry points. A big, hard to circumvent wall. A barrier to illegal entry as best as possible. 

2. Beef up ALL aspects of immigrant processing, especially appointing enough background investigators, clerical, law enforcement, health and human services persons, and judicial staff to process immigrants and asylum seekers in a timely manner. A good portion of our illegal immigration is because legal immigration is slow enough to be called next to impossible.

3. (Congress) Reform immigration law. Make it easier for hardworking, needed workers to enter. On the other hand, make it more difficult for criminals, drug and human traffickers to come in and or to stay if they're her already. A Constitutional Amendment that differentiates between people here legally and those who are here illegally would be excellent. Give illegals 12 months, maybe 24, or some other finite period to declare their presence and enjoin a process of legalization. At the conclusion, they are legal aliens, no longer illegal. This amendment would once and for all settle the question, are illegal immigrants entitled to taxpayer funded benefits? Not just no, HELL NO!

4. Make a path to legal status and eventually to citizenship for law abiding, hard working immigrants, even those now here illegally. Deal HARSHLY with criminal illegal aliens guilty of violent crimes, drug or human trafficking. When I say harshly, I mean as harsh as possibly short of cruel and unusual.

If I had my way, tens of millions of people here now illegally will be able to come out of the shadows, allowed to live well, prosper, and legally contribute to American greatness (I love that phrase). Many, many criminals will be deported.

President Biden is a failure at nearly everything. It's time we wake up and see that. And while we're at it, to put his totally and completely failed immigration policies at the top of that dubious list of failures. But when it comes to US immigration failure, Congress, and I mean on both sides of the aisle, have also failed us. Biden does not deserve to be blamed alone, there is blame to go around. Plenty.