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The only thing the woke hypocrisy of the Biden administration and its allies on immigration and border security has succeeded in demonstrating is that the problems of the southern border can get much worse very quickly. Without a long-term bipartisan compromise, made impossible by Democratic ideological radicalization, the border crisis will be a recurring threat with unpredictable consequences. Whatever Republicans do to secure the border, the Democrats will undo, one way or another.
Recall that after the 2001 terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush linked border security to national security by offering a bipartisan compromise to strengthen the border and rigorously enforce immigration laws by accepting illegal immigrants already in the country. Bipartisan agreement was attempted without success then and in subsequent years.
Obama did not seek an agreement, he unilaterally liberalized immigration policies. Trump did not seek a deal either, he reversed Obama’s using existing law, with no promises of amnesty, to secure illegal border crossings and enforce the law very rigorously. Biden took back Obama’s policies, and despite an increase in apprehensions in 2021 created a border crisis the likes of which had not been seen in decades.
Presidential U-turns and congressional inaction on immigration and borders are a product of political and ideological division in the country. And the differences between blue and red states are growing. And surprising Democrats, more and more Hispanic voters are leaning Republican.
Immigration and border security policy need a continuity that requires long-term bipartisan consensus or compromise. In the face of Democratic leftist radicalization, conservatives logically turned their backs on RINOS and moderates in the Republican primaries.
The immigration crisis led Texas and Florida governors to expose woke hypocrisy by sending a few migrants to sanctuary cities that immediately claim their own “humanitarian crises” in the face of the arrival of those to whom they offered refuge.
In May, a large coalition of conservative groups submitted a letter to lawmakers in the next Congress to “immediately legislate unflinchingly, ensuring that neither this nor any future administration are again able to weaponize the loopholes in the immigration system to purposefully drive mass illegal immigration. The opportunity to legislate has been missed in several previous Congresses, but the stakes are too high for it to be missed again.”
What they are calling for is an end to the loopholes used by Democrats to implement their ambiguous border and immigration policies. If the midterm elections yield a clear Republican legislative majority and that majority bets on forcing the White House to address border security and nullify the call effect by aggressively deporting illegal immigrants, the Democratic administration will evade it, one way or another, in the face of what an incoming Republican administration will implement, one way or another, an even harsher policy than Trump’s.
The strengthened conservative platform responds to the radicalized woke platform. As the Biden administration will insist on liberalized and ambiguous immigration policies through loopholes, the Supreme Court will tend to the Republican platform on immigration and border security.
Polls indicate that confidence in the Biden administration on immigration and border security is at an all-time low. But the truth is that apprehensions of illegal migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border peaked in 2000, with more than 1,600,000 cases. Between 2019 and 2021 we have the highest numbers in more than a decade, but still lower than then. An increasingly unstable Hispanic America indicates that border crises could be much worse, and the impossibility of bipartisan compromise indicates that they probably will be.
Guillermo Rodríguez is a professor of Political Economy in the extension area of the Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences at Universidad Monteávila, in Caracas. A researcher at the Juan de Mariana Center and author of several books // Guillermo es profesor de Economía Política en el área de extensión de la Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Administrativas de la Universidad Monteávila, en Caracas, investigador en el Centro Juan de Mariana y autor de varios libros