When the 10 Republican lawmakers arrived before midnight to tour the migrant holding facility in Donna, Texas, they were shocked by what they saw. “The migrants, dirty and exhausted, were sitting in row after row. Almost all were silent. The ‘facility’ was mostly benches, a line of porta-potties, some basic supplies, and a trailer with the sign MOBILE DENTAL UNIT,” wrote the Washington Examiner’s Byron York. Some migrants had endured a 40-day journey from Honduras. Many had hiked miles through rough terrain in the dead of night, from where smugglers left them to where American border guards picked them up. In March, border guards encountered 172,331 unaccompanied minors, family units, and single adults on the southern border, and the flood keeps on coming. And yet still, Democrats still insist: there is no crisis.

After initially ignoring it, President Joe Biden admitted the crisis last Friday, but White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki quickly backtracked — insisting in a press conference that he didn’t mean it. “The president does not feel that children coming to our border seeking refuge from violence, economic hardships, and other dire circumstances is a crisis,” she said. This comes to you from the same administration that denied reporters and Congress access to the border, redacted a press release, and euphemized “kids in cages” to “children in temporary overflow facilities.” It’s almost like they care more about controlling the narrative than controlling the border.

Vice President Kamala Harris was appointed to oversee the border response. So far, she has held two phone calls. But don’t worry, this week she will travel to New Hampshire, 500 miles in the wrong direction. The silence from Democrats in Congress, too, has been staggering. That’s because, as Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) said, “This is a crisis of our own making.” Four months ago, the border was a ghost town because the Trump administration’s policies were working. But President Biden practically invited the crisis by halting deportations, ending the remain in Mexico policy, and pretty much prohibiting border patrol from doing their jobs. Instead of keeping people out, our border patrol are now spending all their time providing humanitarian aid to people coming in.

As critical as it is to solve the border crisis, there is another, more fundamental question, which few people are asking. “Why are they coming to our border?” Fixed Point Foundation Executive Director Larry Taunton spent the past months trying to answer that question, a search that led him back and forth across Latin America. “In talking to refugees, what you discover… is that they’re fleeing socialism and unreasonable lockdowns in search of freedom.” I hope they aren’t disappointed with the country they find when they get here. Waltz agreed, saying the driving force behind the northward immigration is “corrupt socialist government [that] can’t help their people” and “economies that have been devastated by left wing policies.”

It’s time for Democrats to face the music. Waltz said their “hardnosed determination to not admit” the border crisis was “for political reasons.” In other words, their Marxist ideology tells them that millions of poor Latin immigrants will automatically vote Democrat. But Latin immigrants drawn to America aren’t “naturally predisposed to being Democrats,” explained Taunton. “They’re generally from Catholic backgrounds, hardworking, family oriented, aren’t used to government subsidies, know what socialism is, and hate it.” If Republicans are clever enough to catch on, Democrats’ demographic politics might just work against themselves. Democrats should be careful what they wish for, and take responsibility of the mess they’ve made of the southern border.

Originally published here.

GOP House and Senate Take a Swing at MLB

If the bosses over at Major League Baseball think fans have moved on from their Georgia stunt, they’re wrong. It’s past time to deal with our pastime, Republicans say. And this week, a group of House and Senate leaders have unveiled a bill that would make the Commissioner Rob Manfred’s All-Star move hurt. A lot.

“It’s not fair to the game,” two-time World Series winner David Wells said, “when you’ve got one knucklehead who’s trying to act like [Joe] Biden.” In his mind — and so many others’ — that “knucklehead, Manfred, has really done Americans a disservice. By turning baseball into the latest political statement, he’s made fans choose between a sport that they love and their values. "People watch sports to be entertained,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) argued, “not to be lectured about politics.”

Look, Congressman Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) said. If companies want to undermine the integrity of our election process, then they’re asking for “increased scrutiny of their business practices.” Major League Baseball has enjoyed a 100-year exemption from anti-trust laws, he pointed out on “Washington Watch.” Many people have argued it’s unconstitutional. “No other sports league has been shielded [like them],” Duncan said. And if they’re going to go pull the All-Star Game from Atlanta in a decision that “reeks of politics,” then they need to know that they’ll pay for it. “They don’t deserve special favors from government.”

Under his new House bill, cosponsored by almost 30 Republicans, and the companion Senate bill from Mike Lee (R-Utah), MLB won’t be able to keep its special monopoly. That means, Forbes points out, the league probably wouldn’t be able to keep its contract with minor league teams; it would have difficulty with trademark rights for manufacturing; the gambling industry wouldn’t be able to centralize certain statistics; there would be lawsuits from competitors and fights over things like salary caps and team location changes. For Manfred and the owners, it would be a disaster. That’s the price, Duncan says, of bowing to the whims of the mob.

“It’s wrong,” he insisted, “and I think this is backfiring on Major League Baseball… They’re not going to go broke over it, but it’s definitely going to hurt their bottom line.” Already, the Morning Consult says, the league is in major trouble with Republican fans. MLB’s net favorability fell through the floor — cratering 35 points almost overnight. Only 12 percent of conservatives have a positive opinion of the league after Georgia. “I think ultimately they’re going to hear from the fans who wanted to come to Atlanta and experience a great night of baseball in the south, who may not go to Denver, who may boycott Major League Baseball in general. That’s where the pressure is going to come from.”

In the meantime, this is a shot across the bow. If Manfred is going to dabble in leftist politics, then baseball needs to be treated like every other business. “No more special treatment,” Congressman Chip Roy (R-Texas) argued. “No more No more corporate welfare.” No more sweetheart deals. “Americans are tired of being lectured by corporate hacks who don’t share our values.”

And if Republicans retake the House and/or Senate in 2022, then it’s fair to say: the league — and every other business — has been warned. Americans “will soon stop tolerating your lies, your attempts to denigrate them, and your attempts to control the way they think, act, and talk,” Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.) insisted. “Let me give you woke corporate leaders a heads-up: Everybody can see the game you are playing. Everybody can see your lies. You are the naked emperor. So, cancel as many people as you can right now. Make as much money off of slave labor in Communist China as you can now. Keep telling your customers how racist and sexist and unsophisticated they are. The backlash is coming.”

Originally published here.

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.