The Patriot Post® · On This Episode of the Border Crisis...
Our borders are a huge source of worry … at least for reasonable Americans. Under this administration, any action to secure it seems to immediately be shot down and squelched. Here are the latest stories regarding border security leadership, illegal immigration, and attempts by border states to protect America’s sovereignty.
Mayorkas Impeachment
House Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) put forth a resolution seeking to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas back in May. Last Monday, it was shelved with the help of eight Republicans.
The first question is: Why? Clearly, Mayorkas is doing a terrible job — though it’s the job the Democrats clearly want him to be doing. But why did eight Republicans provide an out for the Democrats by shelving the resolution? One thought is that, although the resolution might be popular, some are extremely hesitant to sign on to motions brought forth by a firebrand like Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Another is that impeaching Mayorkas and potentially ousting him from his position doesn’t mean a more competent person will fill his shoes. There is a reason that President Joe Biden has Mayorkas where he is. A wide-open border is part of the Democrat agenda.
For the eight Republican holdouts’ part, they didn’t view shelving the impeachment motion as killing it. According to Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA): “We didn’t kill a Mayorkas impeachment. We voted to launch hearings and make our case to the entire nation. If we impeached Mayorkas today, the Senate would have rejected it today. House Democrats will now have to defend Biden or admit his border disaster. We can win this.”
The holdouts want to wait until they can ensure that the Senate — which is currently occupied by Democrats — will play along. And as frustrating as that is at present, there is an element of futility in impeachment proceedings when it won’t get out of the House of Representatives. In other words, a House-only impeachment motion would be little better than a virtue signal.
For her part, Greene is going to make another attempt to impeach Mayorkas after Thanksgiving.
The Monetary and Human Cost of Illegal Migration
Biden’s “brilliant” plan to flood the country with illegal immigrants is working just about as well as you’d think it would. Under his watch, the number of illegal crossings has broken the year-over-year record yet again. This is not the sort of record you’d like to set as the leader of a free people. This absolute flood of humanity swarming over the border is causing a wake-up call among lawmakers and the migrants themselves.
The House GOP has released a new report stating that Americans potentially could pay up to $451 billion in taxes just to support illegal immigrants. Democrat city mayors such as Eric Adams of New York City are watching as the policies that their leader Biden is enacting systematically destroy and bankrupt their cities.
Conditions in these cities are not great for the immigrants themselves. In an ironic twist, some illegals are leaving the U.S. and returning to their home countries. Those who came to America for the American Dream (i.e., a chance at a better life for themselves and their families) are disillusioned by the inability to get jobs or quickly embed themselves in American society.
The irony is that so many illegals are all vying for the same jobs that they are left living in makeshift housing situations for months on end with no opportunity in sight. It is absolutely the federal government’s fault, but not for the reasons the illegal immigrants and Democrat mayors believe. They blame the federal government for not providing enough money. Hmph. The real reason it’s the federal government’s fault is because it’s failing to do its most important job: protect the sovereignty of the nation by securing the border.
Texas Bill
Texas is attempting to use federalism to clean up the mess that the Biden administration has foisted upon it. Senate Bill 4 (SB4) was passed last Tuesday and would make it a crime in the state of Texas — as opposed to just federally — to cross the southern border illegally. It has yet to be signed into law.
This bill would empower Texas law enforcement to arrest, detain, and deport illegal immigrants. Texas lawmen would have a choice about how to prosecute illegal immigrants who are flaunting American border laws. They could choose to put them in jail — first-time offenders would only receive a misdemeanor, which would put them away for a year, and serial offenders would be charged with a felony and a maximum sentence of 20 years — or they could deport them to Mexico. It would essentially bypass federal law interference. It would also help turn back the tide.
This bill, however, is a risky move for Texas.
Arizona already tried to empower its police force to help with the tide of illegals rushing over the border back in 2012. Arizona’s bill was slightly different because the main issues that the Supreme Court justices had with it had to do with employment of illegals and forcing them to carry papers identifying their immigration status. The Supreme Court ruled in Arizona v. United States that individual states do not have the right to make their own immigration laws. I.e., border security is the purview of the federal government alone.
But this is a different time. Our country in 2012 wasn’t dealing with hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants crossing the borders every month like we are now. Texas thinks it has a case to plead with SCOTUS.
These are desperate times in which we live. If New York City Mayor Adams is overwhelmed, just imagine how the citizens of every border state are feeling at this juncture. For his part, Texas Governor Greg Abbot is ready and willing to sign SB4 into law. He said in a post on X (formerly Twitter), “Texas won’t wait on Biden to secure the border.”