In 2019, people working outside their homelands sent $554 billion of their earnings back to their native countries. Nearly all of this cash flowed from developed nations to less developed ones. The $554 billion in remittances eclipsed the total of all foreign investment in these receiving nations, and three times the amount these nations received in foreign aid.
Then came the COVID-19 pandemic. The global health crisis touched off a global economic crisis, resulting in millions of lost jobs and restrictions on travel that make it difficult for foreign workers to get to a job in another country, even if one is available.
The German theologian Martin Niemöller famously summed up how dangerous social pathologies begin incrementally before snowballing into full-blown assaults on the core of civilized societies. Recounting how Nazi doctrine tightened its grip on Germany, he observed, “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist.” The trade unionists and the Jews were next until finally they came for him, “and there was no on left to speak for me,” he lamented.
The subversion of laws that exist to serve the welfare of society, by those who want to undermine that society, always begins slowly. People have to become inured to the erosion of the society’s foundational principles through relentless campaigns that make the perfect the enemy of the good.
Candidate Joe Biden was harshly critical of Donald Trump’s handling of immigration policy and border enforcement. He was even critical and apologetic about the Obama administration’s record on immigration, in which he served as vice president, even though President Obama’s supposed toughness on immigration was vastly hyped.
Rather than address any element of the ongoing Biden border crisis, House Democrats spent their time moving legislation that only worsens the already grave situation at our southern border. The NO BAN Act jeopardizes our national security and public health, while the Access to Counsel Act further overwhelms our immigration courts and creates unnecessary burdens to already strained immigration authorities. Passage of both bills reveal how detached House Democrats are from properly addressing the nation’s most pressing immigration matters.
President Joe Biden and his administration continue to peddle the public relations snake oil that spending money in the Northern Triangle countries will help regain control of the southern border and reduce illegal immigration. The administration plans to spend $4 billion as part of its strategy to look like they’re trying to control the border, provide more than $300 million in emergency aid and has contemplated granting direct cash payments to migrants.
In March, the Biden-Harris administration restarted the Central American Minors (CAM) program, an Obama-Biden migration scheme that was terminated by the Trump administration. On June 15, in a joint statement by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the new administration – which is currently facing a border/illegal migration crisis of its own creation – announced that it is expanding CAM.
The United States, under President Joe Biden, is sailing into uncharted waters. Democrats, for much of the past half century, have leaned in the direction of moving the United States toward the Scandinavian model of the “nanny state,” in which citizens surrender some of their freedoms and significant chunks of their paychecks in exchange for cradle-to-grave security.
Recently, Dr. Anthony Fauci discussed the impact of COVID-19 at the southern border and the role of Title 42 — a public health order that allows for quick removal of illegal aliens from the country during disease outbreaks.
Rather than admit that COVID-19 remains a public health threat at the southern border and acknowledge that Title 42 remains necessary as illegal migration continues to reach historic levels, Dr. Fauci dismissed these realities.
With a more than seven-fold increase expected in the next few weeks, these flights should be expanded. In addition to allowing for safe and quick repatriation, they would also serve as a deterrent, discouraging more Haitians from attempting to cross the southern border unlawfully. With fewer individuals attempting to enter the country unlawfully, areas along the border would become decongested and help prevent the squalor and packed conditions seen last month.
ICE headquarters is still there on 12th St. S.W. in Washington, D.C. Dozens of field offices around the country remain. The 10,000 employees of the agency still collect paychecks. But as a result of two memos issued by Mayorkas, the agency’s immigration enforcement functions have virtually ceased to exist. To be clear, ICE wasn’t doing much even before Mayorkas issued his edicts – ICE agents were averaging one arrest every two and a half months – but now it’s official: ICE has been ordered to stand down.