Karol Markowicz: Biden administration must stop influx, not reward illegal immigrants with millions
The Biden administration can't hand out half a million-dollar checks to illegal immigrants and not expect more to flood the border
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Last week, President Biden was asked about a report in the Wall Street Journal that the United States was planning to make payments of $450,000 to migrant families separated under Trump administration policy in 2018. Biden grew angry at the idea and called it "garbage."
The president seemed fully unaware that the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services are close to settling lawsuits brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of illegal immigrants.
A few days prior, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had said, "Honestly, this absurd idea feels like a satirical policy proposal that Republicans would have invented to make a parody out of the radical left. Oh, and the next thing you know, they’ll be sending out million-dollar checks to illegal immigrants."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BIDEN LABELS REPORT GOVERNMENT TO PAY SEPARATED IMMIGRANTS $450,000 'GARBAGE'
He’s right. It seems like a bad joke. That’s why the president himself reacted as if it were the most ridiculous idea possible, only to find out the ridiculous idea originated in his administration.
You can oppose separating families at the border – I do – while still realizing that these absurd cash payments will absolutely lead to a frenzy of people trying to get into the United States seeking their own payday. The numbers are astronomical.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"If a U.S. service member is killed in the line of duty, their next-of-kin gets an insurance payment of $400,000," said Rep. Dan Crenshaw. "How can we give more to people breaking our laws to get here?
I’m an immigrant to this country, a Jewish refugee from the former Soviet Union. Our family was granted permission to leave the Soviet Union, the added step that most refugees today do not have, and were stripped of our passports and nationality on the way out of Russia. Stateless, we didn’t then get on a flight to our country of choice. We followed a legal and difficult process. Italy had permitted refugees to temporarily stay while they applied for visas to other countries.
BIDEN SAYS HE HAS 'NO IDEA' WHAT PAYMENTS TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WILL BE, BUT BACKS COMPENSATION
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ex-Soviets rented apartments in coastal towns outside of Rome and waited. They learned Italian. Rumors would sweep the communities: "Canada had closed its doors!" "Australia was briefly letting people in."
It didn’t matter if it were true. Life decisions were made on these pieces of news while we waited to see who would let us in. There was a process, and our time in Italy was a part of that process.
But we’re allowing people now to skip the process completely. Our southern border is a true disaster. Vice President Kamala Harris, our "border czar," has been entirely missing in action. When the czar went to Guatemala in June she said, "Do not come. The United States will continue to enforce our laws and secure our border." Everyone knows we won’t.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The payout news will inevitably cause a game of broken telephone where the poor and the desperate in central American countries will believe riches are waiting for them if they can get across the border. A lot of what happens in our immigration process is done through cues.
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Even Biden knows it. When Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked him about the payments and whether they would encourage more illegal immigration, the president responded, "If you guys keep sending that garbage out, yeah, but it’s not true."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But it is very much true.
And before Harris visited Guatemala, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said that the mixed messages from the administration were causing people to try and make the perilous crossing, or worse, send their kids ahead.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The message [from the Biden administration] changed to: ‘We’re going to reunite families, we’re going to reunite children.’ The very next day, the coyotes were here organizing groups of children to take them to the United States," he said.
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America is still the beacon of hope and freedom in the world, and people yearn to come here. But we have to have a sane process through which people are welcomed here. Without the process, our country will be lost. We can’t hand out half a million-dollar checks to people who broke the law to be here and imagine that’s not going to encourage others.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Words matter, actions matter, and it’s long past the time for this administration to stop the influx of people following their cues.