Amid the documentation of illegal immigrants crossing the border and committing crimes, the urgency of this issue has been overshadowed by political rhetoric. President Joe Biden’s stance has been inconsistent, initially promising to reverse Trump-era immigration policies in 2020 but more recently supporting a Senate plan to establish daily crossing limits this year.
There is a notable hypocrisy on the Left when discussing illegal immigration. The leader of Texas’s most populated county, Harris County, fell into the same trap when she spoke about a group of illegal immigrants assaulting and strangling a 12-year-old girl. A Harris County court heard how Jocelyn Nungaray’s hands were bound behind her back during the brutal assault, then how she was strangled and dumped in a bayou.
Judge Lina Hidalgo said, “Evil happens regardless of immigration status.” Her statement simply fell flat when faced with the context that if the Biden administration had properly enforced the border, this girl would likely still be alive.
Hidalgo made the hypocrisy palpable when she said, “The former president decided that he didn’t want Biden to have a lid on immigration — he told his party to pull out of that agreement. So, blaming things on the current immigration policy is absolutely political, and it really breaks my heart that people would politicize the sadness of that tragedy.”
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She has repeatedly involved herself in politicizing immigration policy. Last fall, she and two other Democratic county judges in Texas asked Biden to stop Senate Bill 4, an immigration law that allows local and state authorities to arrest people suspected of entering Texas illegally from a foreign country. SB 4 also made it a state crime and it empowers county and state court judges to order the deportation of those found to be in violation, even though the enforcement of immigration laws is the jurisdiction of the federal government. This all comes in response to the Biden administration’s failure to do something about illegal immigration.
Does she not get it? The Biden team could have worked on a plan to solve this crisis, sure. Their failure to get Senate Democrats to agree to vote on legislation deserves a lot of blame. However, there’s a need for unity in addressing this tragedy. People are dying because we cannot enforce our laws due to partisan jockeying. Nungaray’s death underscores the urgency for judges like Hidalgo to set aside divisions and engage in meaningful dialogue. It is even more important for Biden to provide consistent leadership in addressing our immigration issues. But it is equally as important that Republican leaders come to the table ready to work, not just put on a show about how bad the Democrats are.