Our southern border–and recently, our northern as well–has been in chaos since Joe Biden moved into the White House. In Fiscal Year 2022, more than 6,000 migrants per day were apprehended after illegally crossing the border. In just one year, more than 2.2 million apprehensions were recorded. In the first three months of FY 2023, the average was more than 7,000 migrants per day.
And it’s worse than that, when you take into account the numbers who are not encountered: there were an estimated 600,000 got-aways in FY 2022 and so far in FY 2023 there have been more than 300,000.
All that would be well and good for “Heck of a lot more people” Joe if it weren’t for those pesky election cycles, another of which is coming around next year. No longer can he pretend that all is well; the optics are simply too overwhelmingly bad. And the fantasy that V-P Kamala Harris is doing something about “root causes” has become as laughable as Harris herself.
Now, Biden is facing the long-anticipated demise of Title 42 on May 11. The abandonment of that public health policy, which had at least provided some measure of relief, is expected to result in an unprecedented surge of perhaps 18,000 illegals per day.
What to do?
To the dismay of Democrats and the mainstream media, Joe Biden, whose guiding vision has consisted solely of undoing all things Trump, is considering–in the words of the chief administration water-bearer NY Times–“reviving the practice of detaining migrant families who cross the border illegally.”
Biden had waxed sanctimonious in his reversal of that much-despised practice of the Trump years. Instead of family detentions, he has freely released millions of illegal migrants from the world over, sometimes equipping them with ankle bracelets or traceable cellphones, sometimes not. The important thing has been to put as much policy distance between himself and arch-nemesis Trump, border chaos be damned.
Currently, the idea of actually detaining illegals is still in the “what-if” stage, and no final decision has been made. Nevertheless, the howls of betrayal are loud and furious.
Immigration lawyer Leecia Welch said:
Ending the inhumane practice of family detention has been one of the only positive immigration policy decisions of the Biden administration. It is heartbreaking to hear there could be a return to the Trump-era use of this practice.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), senior Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, declared:
I’m alarmed by news reports that the Administration is considering reinstating family detention policies. If the reports are true, I strongly urge the Administration to reconsider this policy change and instead work towards implementing immigration policies that are humane, orderly, and in line with our American values.
Rep. Nanette Barragán (D-CA), the chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, called the reports “deeply concerning” and added:
A just, safe, and humane immigration system should not place families in detention. We should not return to the failed policies of the past where families are detained in substandard conditions with long term damage to children.
Meanwhile, WH spokesgirl Karine Jean-Pierre made everything clear as usual by saying:
I’m not saying it is being considered … and I’m not saying it is not.
Will Title 42 get yet another lease on life? Will Biden make America Trumpist again? Will Jean-Pierre ever really say anything? Stay tuned to find out.
For more, see MSNBC.