What we talk about when we talk about the illegal immigration debate.
The Twin Cities of Minnesota are undergoing an ICE surge this month, and Democrats and local media (I repeat myself) are not happy. From the Minneapolis Star Tribune,
Federal immigration authorities say they have arrested more than 400 people in Minnesota this month, including several with long-standing deportation orders that were never carried out.
The idea being that there is (or should be) a statute of limitations on illegal immigration enforcement: evade the authorities for long enough and you earn a de facto (or de jure) amnesty.
The proximate cause of the current crisis rests in the 10 million or so illegal immigrants allowed entry under the recent Biden Administration. A week ago, the New York Times published (behind their paywall) a story under the headline,
How Biden Ignored Warnings and Lost Americans’ Faith in Immigration:
The Democratic president and his top advisers rejected recommendations that could have eased the border crisis that helped return Donald Trump to the White House.
Now they tell us. The Times writes,
In the weeks after Joseph R. Biden Jr. was elected president, advisers delivered a warning: His approach to immigration could prove disastrous.
Mr. Biden had pledged to treat unauthorized immigrants more humanely than President Donald J. Trump, who generated widespread backlash by separating migrant children from their parents.
But Mr. Biden was now president-elect, and his positions threatened to drastically increase border crossings, experts advising his transition team warned in a Zoom briefing in the final weeks of 2020, according to people with direct knowledge of that briefing. That jump, they said, could provoke a political crisis.
And now, here we are. The New York Post, reporting on the Times‘ scoop notes,
When Biden took office… his policy advisers continued to urge the administration to crack down on border crossings and increase border enforcement.
The advice fell on deaf ears again after top aides suggested a crackdown would alienate progressive voters and that immigration wasn’t a major concern for Americans living in non-border states.
Now the Trump Administration 2.0 is left to clean up the mess. The same media, activist groups, and Democrats who caused the crisits to begin with, are relentlessly campaigning against any and all solutions. From The Hill newspaper,
DHS changing immigration enforcement tactics amid negative polling
DHS isn’t ending enforcement, merely making it less ostentatious,
DHS is planning to change its tactics in immigration enforcement operations, moving away from sweeping raids that have been publicized in some cities across the country.
DHS sources told NewsNation’s Ali Bradley that U.S. Border Patrol teams under Commander Gregory Bovino will narrow their focus to specific targets, such as immigrants in the country illegally who have been convicted of serious crimes.
From my review of federal and state court records in Minnesota, the focus has always been on the most serious criminals. I’m now tracking more than 100 such “Minnesota Men.” Another article in today’s Star Tribune reports on an ICE raid in suburban Minneapolis. They quote a local Democratic state senator,
A small business. Taxpayers. People who invested in our community, created jobs and served their neighbors every day. Since when are they considered the ‘worst of the worst’? This isn’t right. And it’s not who we should be targeting if we care about safe, strong communities.
The Star Tribune wouldn’t name the suspect, so we can’t confirm his good standing as one of the “best of the best.” In addition, the outlet refuses to report on the Minnesota Men, whose ranks include child molesters, rapists, murderers, you name it. The Star Tribune‘s selective reporting leads its readers (a dwindling number, to be sure) to conclude that immigration enforcement is counter productive.
So, what should we be doing on immigration enforcement? Nothing?
