The great Milton Friedman has made many noteworthy comments and observations. An especially prescient one was made in 1997 when he said, "You can't have open borders and a welfare state."
I'm old enough to remember when then-Senator Barack Obama advocated for a secure border and a controlled immigration process. The year was 2006 and he said, “We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, unchecked, and circumventing the line of people who are waiting patiently, diligently, and lawfully to become immigrants in this country.”
Two years later, Hillary Clinton called for “tougher employer sanctions” and physical barriers to secure the border. Eleven years later Bernie Sanders warned us that unrestricted immigration would attract impoverished people from all over the world, straining our national resources.
It hasn't been that long since prominent Democrats held a consensus on the need for robust border control and legal immigration pathways. President Clinton and others have pushed for rational immigration policies for years.
If we jump ahead to the Biden-Harris administration we see a shift in the rhetoric. Suddenly, securing the border is wrong because, "We're a nation of immigrants" and "we need migrants to do the jobs Americans won't do". These impromptu comments conflict with the many assurances that we heard from pResident (not a typo) Biden, VP Harris and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, all of whom assured us that the border was secure.
Not quite.
A 2024 factsheet from the House Committee on Homeland Security reveals a disturbing picture. Over 10 million illegals were encountered at the border under the Biden-Harris administration. That figure includes 2.5 million apprehensions at the southwest border in 2023 alone. I don't use Wikipedia for anything that requires much in the way of precision, but it suffices for rough estimates or quick answers. According to Wikipedia, the number of illegals welcomed in by Biden/Harris and whoever was really running the country between 2020 and 2024 exceeds the population of over 40 states. This is, to put it mildly, an unprecedented surge in migration.
The factsheet also mentions 1.7 million known “gotaways,” people who evaded apprehension, since 2021 as well as significant increases in encounters with individuals on terrorist watch lists and criminal aliens.
The Heritage Foundation fact-checked pRresident Biden’s border speech and dismantled his narrative of effective border management. The report found that pResident Biden did not inherit a chaotic border and noted that his policies, such as terminating the Remain-in-Mexico program and catch-and-release practices, exacerbated crossings. Biden took many other executive actions such as halting border wall construction, selling off the components for pennies on the dollar, and expanding parole programs which facilitated higher illegal entries compared to the Trump era.
The pattern is incandescently obvious. Obama, Clinton, and Sanders articulated a need for robust immigration controls that echoed the public's demand for order and legality. Comments from Nancy Pelosi and Xavier Becerra both suggested an awareness of border management deficiencies. Kamala Harris’s bold claim of a secure border appears detached from reality as there was a documented surge in encounters and “gotaways.”
Who would have thought that political posturing would ever overtake policy effectiveness? While some Democrats have, in the past, supported strong borders, the Biden-Harris administration’s actions contrast strongly with Obama’s deportations. This reflects a shift toward leniency, despite public-facing assurances. The Biden administration’s rhetoric downplayed the crisis, quite possibly to maintain political favor. However the data clearly shows a failure to address the scale of illegal immigration which directly contradicted earlier Democratic principles and their claims of security.
The contrast between Democratic leaders’ past calls for tough immigration enforcement and the Biden-Harris administration’s optimistic rhetoric reveals a startling gap between policy and reality.
And now the chickens have come home to roost. News outlets are replete with images, videos and reports of 'mostly peaceful riots' in various cities. Once again we're witnessing attacks on local, state and federal officers and damage to property from arson and vandalism. Once again, the Left has created an enormous mess. And once again, the usual suspects engage in psychological projection, blaming President Trump and Republicans for inciting the chaos that they themselves have caused.
