On Sunday 8 January 2023, President Joe Biden finally visited the U.S. southern border with Mexico. He went to El Paso (whose streets had been cleaned up and cleared out of illegals camped out on the streets), where he met with some local Democrat Party leaders and had a photo op alongside part of President Trump’s secure border wall. He met with no local property owners along the border whose land has been overrun with illegals. He also had no formal meeting with Texas Governor Greg Abbott, but spoke a few words with him as Abbott waited in his wheelchair for the President to disembark from Air Force One and then handed him a scathing letter criticizing the President’s policies and outlining 5 ways the border crisis can be addressed.
In a Twitter post the same day, Abbott slammed the President’s visit as “$20 billion too little and two years too late”. Among his five policy recommendations, Abbott said that Biden should comply with existing statutes that mandate detention of illegal aliens, re-instate Trump’s remain in Mexico policy, prosecute illegal entry, and resume construction of the border wall.
In contrast to Governor Abbott’s policy recommendations, Biden proposed to expand a parole program that would add Venezuela to the list that already allows would-be immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua to apply for legal status for two years, providing they find a sponsor in the U.S. and pass a background check. Under this plan, up to 30,000 people total from these four countries would be allowed entry into the U.S. each month, which would total 360,000 additional illegals to be released into the country each year. Biden also announced that would-be immigrants can now use a cell-phone app to schedule an appointment at a port of entry to start a claim for asylum.
Biden also intends to expand coordination with NGO’s that are the U.S. connection with the Mexican drug cartels to help traffic illegals across the U.S. after the cartels bring them to and across the border.
Biden’s new plans are already being challenged in court by a lawsuit brought in Florida. The lawsuit argues that Biden’s administration is misusing the parole system in ways that are unconstitutional and that violate federal law established by Congress. The trial in this case begins on Monday 9 January 2023.
All of this takes place against the backdrop of record-shattering apprehensions at the U.S. southern border during fiscal year 2022, when 2.3 million were recorded. Fiscal year 2023 already is on track to shatter even that record, with estimated numbers of so-called ‘got-aways’ also in the millions.
#DefendtheBorder #EveryStateABorderState #SecureBordersSaveLives
This column was originally published at Defend the Border and Save Lifes
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