by Lisa Schiffren
It is clear that the Biden Administration has no intention of doing anything to stop the 15-month invasion by millions of illegal migrants at the southern border. In March, border apprehensions reached 221,000—a 22-year high. With the impending end of Title 42, the regulation that keeps people out under conditions of pandemic, the administration has figured out how to exacerbate the crisis. When Title 42 expires on May 23, we will have a surge of migrants (who can put together the $6,000 to $8,000 needed to pay cartels) overwhelming the southern border.
A court decision Monday will keep Title 42 in place for now. But it is no surprise that the Biden Administration, which has attempted to maintain every other pandemic policy, would roll back Title 42.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has effectively opened the border, destroying order and the rule of law, in the process. He has flown tens of thousands to destinations of their choosing on DHS chartered planes, under cover of night. He has ended the public charge rule, which reasonably required new legal immigrants to demonstrate self-sufficiency, rather than depending on our array of social welfare benefits. Taxpayers foot the bill for all these things and, in addition, pay a large chunk of the totals migrants receive along the way from U.N.-backed groups.
To stop this flood of humanity, and restore the primacy of legal immigration, it is time, as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) suggested Tuesday, to impeach Mayorkas. That seems to be the last remaining option given that the hardline open borders activist-turned-Cabinet secretary will not back down, even if fellow Democrats who are vulnerable in November ask him to, and even with 80 percent of Americans and a growing crowd of Democratic governors, senators and congressmen asking him to fix this crisis.
In a just world, the GOP would start impeachment hearings against a president who is sanctioning an invasion of our own nation. As Volodymyr Zelenskyy might note, defense of a nation’s borders is the bottom-line job for a head of state. But, Joe Biden will not be impeached, because of his perfect insurance policy of a visibly unqualified, deeply unpopular vice president.
If Biden is impeachment-proof, Mayorkas is not. He has made enemies left and right by lying about this traitorous open borders policy on every occasion he’s been confronted in congressional hearings and by the press. He could be removed from office easily, at great benefit to border policy. This would be a first step to a more rational policy, in which borders are defended, and immigration is conducted legally. And it might provide a useful reminder to a party that twice attempted to impeach the previous Republican president that, in politics, “turnabout is fair play.”
A serious Republican Party would make a bunch of ads showing exactly who is coming over the border, what problems they bring, such as drugs and sex trafficking, and what benefits they are being given at a moment in which American citizens are feeling the financial pain of Biden economic and energy policies.
Impeachment is a win-win in this case. A great many vulnerable Democrats, especially in border states, but also in dumping ground states, oppose ending Title 42 without a replacement. Others can be put on the spot: Vote to represent your constituents and their reasonable goals, or vote to escalate the invasion at the expense of American jobs, schools, and welfare budgets.
Mayorkas has been a disaster. He stonewalls or tells elected officials what they want to hear and returns to creating “facts on the ground” where illegal aliens are placed in cities and suburbs alike. Congress has the power and, one might argue, the duty to remove any cabinet secretary who is so vigorously committed to undermining border integrity and changing the cultural makeup of the nation based on personal whim.
You want to bring in lots of immigrants? Do it legally. Make them apply, show the ability to support themselves, and pass the usual medical and criminal screenings. Then welcome. It is time for Mayorkas to go. Congress can, and should, get rid of him.
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Lisa Schiffren is an editor and writer living in New York.
