On the Other Hand
A good word for Trump, and a strident denunciation of his predecessor
Having roundly criticized President Trump’s foreign policy follies, I think it only fair to give him credit where credit is due. And the leading item on the credit side of his legacy ledger concerns border security.
It will be recalled that as a candidate, Donald Trump promised to bring the US border with Mexico under control. He pledged to halt the ceaseless flow of illegal immigrants into this country. He said he would do it on day one of his presidency. For this he was denounced as a racist monster of evil by all the usual suspects. But the American people were fed up with the situation on the southern border, and Trump’s position on the issue played a major role in his victory over border tsarina Kamala Harris.
So Donald Trump became president. And if not on day one then with commendable dispatch, he made good on his pledge. Acting in accordance with existing US immigration law, he got the border under control and ended the migrant crisis.
The President deserves kudos for his achievement, but that’s not the only reason why I’m writing about it today. The promptitude with which he solved the border problem should serve as a reminder that past administrations, Republican as well as Democrat, were derelict in their duty. Instead of taking action to solve the problem, they manufactured excuses for inaction. And during the Biden Administration, the President and his cabal first maximized the problem, then elevated the excuse making to the level of systemic mendacity.
President Biden lied about the border. So did Vice President Kamala Harris. So did Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. So did the President’s advisors and spokespeople, including White House chiefs of staff Ron Klain and Jeff Zients, and presidential press secretaries Jen Psaki and Karine Jean-Pierre. So did almost every congressional Democrat. So did the Biden-adjacent media and pundit class. So did just about every Democrat and progressive.
Biden had a habit of blaming the border crisis on congressional inaction and partisan politics. His hands were tied, he whined, because Congress would not pass “comprehensive immigration reform.” And that, he claimed, was the fault of obstructionist Republicans, who were exploiting the border crisis for their own nefarious political purposes.
Biden & Co. also developed the argument that the border crisis could only solved by addressing its “root causes”: poverty and political instability in many countries and, of course, “climate change.” In her capacity as border tsarina, Vice President Harris was dispatched to Central America to deal with these root causes. But combatting illegal immigration with solar panels, wind farms and EV mandates was a notion as stupid as…well…Kamala Harris.
From Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas, we got repeated assertions that “the border is closed”—in the background of which flickered images of immigrant mobs storming over the border. To distract attention from its scandalous dereliction of duty, the Biden Administration launched an attack on the federal agencies responsible for border security. ICE and the Border Patrol were reviled as racist stormtroopers, whipping helpless migrants who were pleading for asylum. Neither Biden nor anybody else involved ever apologized for the slander.
In all this the Biden Administration, the Democratic Party and the broad progressive Left displayed a profound contempt for the American people—who would, it was assumed, tamely swallow any lie, would languidly bask in the gaslight, were too stupid to realize that they were being fed a line of crap. This was no well-meaning but misguided administration grappling as best it could with a tough problem. It was a cabal of despicable liars and propagandists, who for reasons that are not difficult to surmise were deliberately permitting illegal immigration to rage out of control.
But it turns out that where illegal immigration is concerned, the American people are not tame, nor languid, nor stupid. And so the issue blew up in the faces of Biden, Harris, Democrats—that whole scurvy crew. And once in office, Trump exposed their lies. Thanks, M. Cosmic Justice! What would we do without you?
Thank you. Well needed and well said. One part of this immigration fiasco that needs more sunlight is where the gangs and criminals are doing their mayhem. Mostly in lower class neighborhoods.