Joe Biden’s decision to allow Title 42 to expire echoed his withdrawal from Afghanistan. Biden’s trademark brand of inaction and unpreparedness led to the death of 13 American service members overseas. His inaction at our border will lead to even more American lives being unnecessarily lost.
Only a few years ago, under President Donald Trump, we were blessed with perhaps the most secure border in recent U.S. history. He ended catch-and-release, went after human traffickers, deported a record number of illegal aliens, and constructed almost 500 miles of border wall.
The numbers tell the whole story. The total sum of illegal entries for all four years under President Trump was 2,372,184. In just half the time, there have already been more than 2,378,944 illegal entries on Biden’s watch. April alone showed 550 percent more illegal crossings than when President Trump was in office. What a difference a border policy makes.
Biden-era policies have returned us to the practice of incentivizing continued illegal immigration to satisfy big business’ lust for cheap labor, rewarding non-citizens for breaking our laws so that political leaders can virtue signal in the name of “compassion.”
Prior to the expiration of Title 42, there were 700,000 migrants in encampments along the Mexican border waiting to enter our country. That’s more than the number of people who live in Boston.
Meanwhile, in Arizona, the Yuma Sector is already surpassing 180 percent capacity in Border Patrol custody. Pima Border Patrol is projecting an increase in illegal entries as large as 570 percent.
Democrat open border policies flood our nation with hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants that are breaking the law to enter the country, overwhelming our underfunded Border Patrol, and making it near impossible for real asylum seekers to be processed.
Where are we housing and feeding these people? And why are we doing it at the expense of American citizens? There is nothing compassionate about facilitating the largest human, weapons, and drug smuggling operation in our nation’s history.
The stories are horrifying: children as young as 13 being coerced by cartels to act as drivers to help smuggle immigrants across the border, with young girls being passed around, raped and violated on their journey to our country.
In Arizona, we are becoming known as the fentanyl state. Nationwide, this poison has become the leading killer of Americans ages 18 to 45. Over the last eight years, child deaths from fentanyl have jumped nearly 30-fold, mirroring the adult trend. Children are dying on both sides of the border. As a mother, that horrifies me. It should horrify everyone.
The ongoing crisis at our southern border is also nothing short of a humanitarian disaster. Only America First policies can restore desperately needed law and order to our country. Compassionate leadership means putting the American people first.
The humanity of these migrants cannot be ignored, but we must ensure that they follow our laws. Ending this invasion and restoring safety and sanity at the border must be our nation’s number one priority. That begins with:
- Finishing Trump’s Border Wall;
- Classifying the Mexican drug cartels as terrorists, blowing up their tunnels and shooting down their surveillance drones;
- Dramatically increasing the size AND funding of our border patrol;
- Reinstating President Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy to make sure that illegal immigrants stay on the other side of the border;
- Institute mandatory E-Verify: the system that allows employers to check if their employees are eligible to work in the United States;
- We must focus our vetting and processing efforts on merit-based immigration and at-risk asylum seekers.
We need to restore sovereignty to our southern border and defend America. We must stop this revolving door and finish the wall. In Joe Biden’s America, every state is a border state. I do not see this as a Republican or a Democrat Issue. It’s an American issue and it’s hurting our families the most.
No more talk. It’s well past time that We The People demand action from our elected officials.
It’s time to enact an aggressive border policy that will invest in domestic security and save lives on both sides of the border.
We will save The American Dream — for ALL. Our priority must be to fight for the forgotten families of our country and do everything we can to realize our dreams.
In his 2018 State of The Union Address, President Trump made a profound statement that rings even truer today: “Americans are Dreamers, too.” We would be wise to all remember that.
Kari Lake was the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Arizona in 2022.
