OPINION:
How Joseph R. Biden illegally opened the southern border to Mexican drug cartels and their human smuggling machine is the story of how the Democratic Party left America.
As Democrats fight today to keep illegal criminals in our country — offering sanctuary and shutting down the federal government to cripple deportation officers — think back to just 10 to 30 years ago.
Democrats talked tough. Illegal immigrants robbed taxpayers of money better used for education and health care. President Obama gave an award to now-border-czar Tom Homan.
Today, that same illegal migrant class is the Democrats’ lifeblood. In 2021, Mr. Biden began flooding the country with illegals. As the invasion went on for four years, it’s now clear that this was the first component of an entirely new Democratic Party power play: Bring in millions of foreigners, get them ensconced in the welfare state, ignore welfare fraud, protect them from deportation, vilify law enforcement, and then fight voter ID so they can vote.
This insidious formula shows how Democrats exited America as a nation. They view the country now simply as a political power base.
What’s remarkable: While as many as 20 million unknown foreigners got into Mr. Biden’s drug cartel funnel and ended up in America, there was barely a peep of concern from Democrats — or the liberal press.
Even as illegals committed homicides and rapes, Democrats adhered to sanctuary cities. They egged on violent protests, making it hazardous for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to find and extract violent aliens.
The motive for Democrats: Foreign-born migrants provide reinforcements to the party’s left-wing base and are the ticket to political domination.
The best chronicler of this sordid history is a 2024 House Homeland Security Committee report, “Crisis by Design.”
How Mr. Biden’s team created open borders is summed up by the majority of Republicans: “The Biden-Harris administration has ended numerous, effective border-security policies and replaced them with an agenda of open borders.”
For vicious Mexican drug cartels, Democrats were their best friends.
The committee said, “Simultaneously, transnational criminal organizations like the Mexican criminal cartels and violent gangs have been enriched and empowered by record profits from drug trafficking and human smuggling. They funnel those blood-bought dollars into their ever-expanding operations in American cities and throughout the hemisphere. … Illegal aliens are committing crimes in American communities large and small, and their shocking acts of violence and recklessness have been documented in every state.”
From the get-go, before the inauguration, the Biden people told border officials that they wanted an open border by ending outgoing President Trump’s tight controls.
“Policies were implemented that resulted in thousands of aliens being released into the U.S. Illegal immigration intensified … and effectively transferred control of our southwest border directly to the Mexican drug cartels,” former border chief Rodney Scott told the committee.
How did we get where we are today with the need to expel millions of illegals? Here are Mr. Biden’s four key moves, according to the Homeland Security Committee:
1. Illegally stopped detaining inadmissible aliens as required by the Immigration and Nationality Act. Mr. Biden “devised and implemented a comprehensive and unlawful agenda” that let in millions.
2. Relied on “unlawful mass parole” to release millions when parole is supposed to be case-by-case.
3. Released nearly 400,000 unaccompanied children into America instead of following the practice of returning them to their home countries. (The Biden administration lost track of untold thousands.)
4. Refused to detain and deport criminals. By January 2024, there were 617,000 convicted alien criminals inside America. Offices were reluctant to deport them for fear of offending the White House.
Look at the mentality among Democrats.
Mr. Homan, who oversaw deportations, told Newsmax about the last four years of President Obama’s term: “We got shut down.”
In 2023, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said on Boston Public Radio, “Every human being has the legal right to come to the United States and seek asylum or shelter.”
This fantasy would make the Biden border surge look amateurish. There are 8 billion human beings in the world. Let’s say 10% (800 million), listen to Ms. Wu and decide to exercise their “legal right” to come here.
New Gov. Abigail Spanberger is turning Virginia into “Little California” by making the state a destination point for migrant criminals. Goofy Fairfax County recently released one who promptly committed murder.
This month, socialist/communist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said his immigration policy will mirror the Prophet Muhammad’s migration from Mecca to Medina. In other words, immigration based on Islam, not U.S. laws.
On Feb. 10, the Department of Homeland Security, the same department that opened the border under Mr. Biden, felt compelled to urge California Gov. Gavin Newsom not to release any of the more than 30,000 imprisoned criminal illegal aliens for whom ICE has placed deportation detainers.
California harbors illegal immigrants, such as Mario Edgardo Garcia-Aquino, who was arrested in April for raping and murdering a 13-year-old boy. State law prohibits police from inquiring about a person’s immigration status or from helping ICE.
In this year alone, the Homeland Security Department said, 4,561 criminal illegal aliens were released into communities, who had ICE detainers, which were ignored by California law enforcement.
President Trump has achieved a sealed and much safer border. Ask yourself, how many lives did he and ICE save in just the first year?
• Rowan Scarborough is a columnist with The Washington Times.
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