Biden’s Border Crisis: Don’t Get Used to the “New Normal,” and Don’t Get Fooled
Incrementalism is the phenomenon whereby things expand gradually over time without attracting much notice, gain acceptance, and reach new levels – the imperceptible movement of the slow hand on the clock. Rising product prices or… increases in illegal crossings and overall lawlessness are prime examples. However, some people do notice – especially when the increases occur rapidly over a short period of time. Thus, marketers and public officials often employ shifty techniques to get us used to the “new normal.”
One devious tactic to placate those showing concern about nonstop increases is inspired by mountain climbers who constantly move up but periodically come back down to acclimate to new elevations and oxygen. Then, once a new plateau has been established, they continue their planned ascension.
Consider this headline from 2004: “AAA says average per gallon prices at $1.73 per gallon.” 18 years later in 2022, AAA reported the average price was $4.33. Today, there’s an apparent national sigh of relief because prices are averaging “only” $3.25 per gallon which, even adjusted for inflation, is considerably more than we were paying in 2004. A “new normal” benchmark has been established…from which, of course, further increases will occur with less consumer resistance.
Likewise, America’s long-term increase in illegal immigration has been another example of incrementalism, although under the Biden administration, it’s more like incrementalism on steroids. Yet, unlike fluctuating gas prices which one can argue are set by free market forces that consumers adjust to (for better or worse), immigration limits are regulated by law. Therefore, the only “normal” level of illegal immigration is, and must, be zero.
Despite statutory restrictions, the number of illegal crossings during the Biden administration has been unprecedented with no leveling off, and new heights reached each month. Encounters at the Southwest border in FY2023 increased more than 100 percent compared to FY2019. Overall, there have been some 8 million encounters nationwide in addition to 1.7 million known gotaways since Joe Biden took office. And as FAIR has reported, “Without dramatic action to change course, total nationwide encounters are on track to reach 11.5 million, not including an additional 2.2 million ‘gotaways’ by the end of President Biden’s term next January.
In an attempt to dismiss the rapidly rising number of illegal entries, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre recently claimed the president has done, “everything that he can” to secure the border, and not to worry because, “the migration flow — increased migration flow, certainly, it ebbs and flows. And we’re at a time of the year where we’re seeing more at the border.”
Hey Karine, since your boss took office there hasn’t been any “ebb and flow” – just more and more flow. But no worries; the White House press secretary says it’s all just normal. Nothing to worry about at the border.
Fortunately, no one is buying it, but two risks remain. First, illegal crossings may decrease in one or more months upcoming – maybe not — but like vacillating gas prices, whatever the number, the overall annual average numbers will be unacceptably and historically sky-high and rising. Second, it might be tempting for the Biden administration to increase enforcement and take credit for small reductions in the flow. Don’t be fooled. Anything short of a complete 180-degree turn by this administration would only be a diversionary tactic, as monthly illegal alien encounters at the border have topped 300,000 five months running.
With the assistance of compliant media outlets, any small reduction would likely be hailed as a sign that the administration has gotten the problem under control. We saw this play out last year when the administration achieved a short-lived decline in migrant encounters between ports of entry by expanding the use of a phone app and further abusing parole authority to allow illegal aliens to enter through legal ports of entry.
While the administration and its allies may be banking on incrementalism and the innate human ability to adjust to new normals, the strategy has its limits. From New York City to remote places like Whitewater, Wisconsin, that are staggering under the impact of record levels of illegal immigration over the past three years, it will take a lot more than a moderate reduction in the influx of new illegal aliens to convince the public that the problem is licked.
For any country, “normal” is upholding national sovereignty by enforcing existing immigration laws that have been agreed upon by the governed and properly enacted by duly-elected legislative powers.