Border towns can't foot the bill for DC-created immigration chaos by themselvesLike a joke that becomes less funny with each telling, dispatching busloads or planeloads of immigrants to the doorsteps of various limousine liberals will soon reach the point of diminishing returns.
It should go without saying that any coercion or deception employed to expedite their transport is wrong. But that deception begins with the moral hazard created by the sparsely guarded border and selectively enforced laws.
And if we are going to leave the golden door ajar, the obligations to care for those who enter cannot be borne solely on the basis of a community’s proximity to the border.
That is the point Govs. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Greg Abbott (R-TX) are attempting to make, even if some are trying extremely hard to pretend they do not understand.
When the surge of illegal immigration began at the southern border shortly after President Joe Biden took office, the White House conceded, however reluctantly, that it was at least partially in response to the migration policy messages they sent.
“Surges tend to respond to hope, and there was a significant hope for a more humane policy after four years of, you know, pent-up demand,” Ambassador Robert Jacobson, who was then the coordinator for the southern border, told reporters at a White House press briefing on March 10, 2021. “So I don't know whether I would call that a coincidence, but I certainly think that the idea that a more humane policy would be in place may have driven people to make that decision.”
Biden and his deputies sent millions of people the message that they could cross the border and possibly not be turned away. If they were accompanied by minors or made it deep enough into the interior of the United States, there was a reasonable chance they would be permitted to remain.
The immigration controls put in place by the “previous administration” were gradually lifted. A 100-day deportation moratorium was swiftly proposed. An immigration plan that offered legal status to a majority of illegal immigrants already in the U.S. was unveiled.
At least 1.66 million people were arrested illegally entering the country in 2021. That number is set to surpass 2 million this year. Pent-up demand, indeed.
“I want to be clear: Neither in this — neither this announcement nor any of the other measures suggest that anyone, especially children and families with young children, should make the dangerous trip to try and enter the U.S. in an irregular fashion,” Jacobson said. “The border is not open.”
That part of the Biden administration’s message has been anything but clear, and it makes White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s complaints about “repeated attempts by these Republican officials to create chaos and confusion at the border” a little hard to take................
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/border-towns-immigration-costs
