Any news outlet supposedly taking it seriously that President Biden is “examining” his authority to protect U.S. territory from foreign invaders is immediately identifiable as a White House accomplice to buy Biden more time before the election. That’s all they’re doing for him, and it’s not up for debate.
Biden said in an interview this week that he’s “examining whether or not I have that power” to prevent migrants from illegally forcing themselves across the Southern border, a calamity he is directly responsible for and which he has done nothing of substance to mitigate.
During a 2020 Democrat primary debate, Biden said the United States “should immediately have the capacity to absorb” hordes of migrants making their way north from Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. In another debate, he said, “We’re a nation that says if you want to flee and you’re fleeing oppression, you should come.”
They heard him. They came. Thus began Biden’s reign of border terror. In February 2021, the first full month of his presidency, there were just more than 100,000 illegal migrants apprehended at the border. By December last year, that number had tripled.
The public has gone from concerned to outraged, with immigration surpassing even the economy as Americans’ top concern. Biden hasn’t felt the urgency. To date, his most notable action has been to ask that Congress legalize up to 5,000 illegal border crossers per day. Before that, he asked his ever-competent vice president Kamala Harris to investigate the “root causes” of migration from Central America. (Her staff and activist allies reacted by running to the media complaining the job was too hard.)
He’s not serious about fixing the problem he created. He doesn’t care. And feigning that he’s only now taking a stern look at whether the law gives the president authority to do anything about it is only the latest indication of that maddening reality.
That the president has the explicit authority to shut down the chaos at the border is irrefutable. Section 1182 of the Immigration and Nationality Act makes it clear in more ways than one. The law expressly states the executive branch has the authority to deny without a moment’s notice any alien who “is likely at any time to become a public charge.” In other words, a foreigner who is going to cost the American taxpayer money.
Well, how about that! By simply breaching our territory — consuming the time and attention of taxpayer-funded border security officials who now have to devote endless resources processing these people — let alone feeding, clothing, and housing them all, they are, by definition public charges.
If that’s not enough for Biden, the section of the INA his lawyers are reportedly looking at gives even broader authority, allowing for the restriction of aliens the president deems “detrimental to the interests of the United States.” He can ask any of the Democrat mayors in Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere if the thousands of migrants bused to their cities, taking up shelter space, recreational centers, and hotel rooms (courtesy of the taxpayer) are a detriment.
The election is seven months away. Biden has looked on for three years as hundreds of thousands of migrants dump themselves into our care, at our expense. We’re supposed to believe now he’s “examining” his authority?
Just give him until November.