Remember all those caravans turned back? How many will be trying to return before long? With amnesty, open borders and talk of ripping the wall down, only a matter of time.
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Biden's Impending Immigration Blunder Will Cause a Border Stampede
In late December of last year, President-elect Joe Biden sought to lower expectations about any swift changes in immigration and asylum policies once he took office. Though he had pledged to make a clear break with the tough stance against illegal immigrants implemented by the Trump administration, in comments made a few days before Christmas, Biden spoke as if he understood that events were already starting to overtake his desire for a "more compassionate" approach to the issue.
Stating that he was worried about the possibility of having "two million people" attempting to cross the border, Biden opined that encouraging such a surge would be "the last thing we need." The only option was, he said, to wait for "probably the next six months" before changing any rules that would make it easier for the United States to process asylum seekers.
Biden was reacting to reports published earlier in December that outlined what had been happening on the southern border, especially in the aftermath of his election victory. What The New York Times called "a new rush at the border" was unfolding with caravans of migrants forming in Central America and a huge increase in the number of people caught trying to illegally cross into the United States. A 15-year-long decline in detentions and illegal immigration, which had gone even lower after the pandemic-induced measures that had effectively closed the border throughout much of 2020, was ending.
The number of dead bodies recovered of those who had fallen prey to the very real dangers of putting themselves in the hands of coyotes, or running out of water and provisions in the desert, was going up. But the understandable belief that the Trump administration's strict enforcement measures were soon to be replaced by Biden's compassion meant that the number of those willing to take their chances and illegally enter the country was rising.
But that sensible caution is now being tossed into the wind. As reports in both Politico and The New York Times made clear, Biden is going big by unveiling a comprehensive immigration bill on Inauguration Day. The scale of his ambition is immense, with the legislation aiming at providing a path to citizenship for all illegal immigrants currently in the country.
Nor will this be an effort to govern from the center, as the president-elect has often promised to do. Unlike previous efforts at overhauling America's broken immigration system, there will reportedly be nothing in the bill about strengthening security at the border so as to prevent the offer of whole-scale amnesty from acting to increase the flow of people without the legal right to enter the country.
This is exactly what the Democratic base, which supports not just amnesty but also free health care for illegal immigrants, has been demanding for years. The only thing they appear to not like is that Biden's plan will reportedly call for an eight-year waiting period while those seeking citizenship would be legal residents. Advocates for the illegal immigrants and the so-called "DREAM-ers"—those who were brought to the United States illegally while they were children—prefer a waiting time of only four years, but they would still be happy with eight.
While Biden's proposed changes in the asylum system will still likely be on hold for several months as more immigration judges and other personnel are put in place, the caution that he showed a few weeks ago is clearly gone. And any thought of trying to send a deterring message to those in Central America is equally forgotten, even if the new bill will increase aid to those countries.
While the post-November surge should have been enough by itself to remind Americans that the possibility of amnesty has a major impact on the number of border crossings, this is hardly the first time such a trend has been made clear.
Rest - https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opini...on/ar-BB1cT0zJ