Victor Davis Hanson
American Greatness
In 2021, Joe Biden opened wide an inherited, secure southern border that had finally stopped mass illegal immigration.
When he overturned Donald Trump’s efforts, a planned flood of over 8 million illegal immigrants entered the U.S.
Almost all arrived without background checks, health screening, or vaccination certificates—but with massive needs for free housing, education, healthcare, and food entitlements and subsidies.
For four years, Donald Trump battled the courts, his Democratic opposition, and the open-border establishments within his own party to ensure legal-only immigration. Somehow, he rebuilt some of the old porous border fence. He had begun to build his long-promised new wall to the Gulf of Mexico. He had ended Obama-era catch-and-release.
Would-be refugees had to apply for asylum in their home country. Trump leveraged Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to police his own border and stop cynically transiting millions of illegal aliens into the U.S.
There was general Democratic Party opposition to all of Trump’s measures, both through Congress and via the courts.
For the last three years of Biden’s mass influx, the left has applauded open borders. That is, until late last year, when overwhelmed southern border state governors began busing and flying illegal immigrants en masse to northern sanctuary-city jurisdictions.
For years, these sanctuary zones had preened their liberality about open borders. They smeared as “racists” and “xenophobes” any who insisted on legal-only immigration.
But now they were subject to the real-life ramifications of their own destructive ideologies.
Major blue-state cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., became outraged that they were inundated with tens of thousands of immigrants, all without legality, veritable identification, or background checks.
Some proved violent. Others crowded out scarce resources essential to millions of inner-city poor.
The liberal architects of illegal immigration are usually rich and powerful enough to be insulated from the consequences of their utopian policies.
But not so their poor or minority constituents. They deal first-hand with spiking crime, appropriation of their parks and civic centers, and restricted access to now overwhelmed social services.
So the once open-border Democrat Party and Joe Biden are in a quandary. They now fear mass defections of core Latino and Black voters in an election year.
But how can they square the circle of insisting on open borders with the need to appear to their own voters as determined to close them?
We saw the absurd answer this week. Shameless Democrats tried to enlist naïve and foolish Republicans to bail them out with a “comprehensive immigration bill.”
It was really designed to keep the border open while spending billions of dollars to facilitate more rapid and orderly transits—and more substantial welfare support for millions of illegals here and still to come.
Now Democrats, in lunatic fashion, claim that anyone who did not sign on to codify and regulate illegal immigration was responsible for their own deliberate open border policies in the first place!
To add insult to injury, they next sought to piggyback their toxic immigration bill onto massive aid for Israel and Ukraine. It was a transparent effort to blame any Republicans for harming Israel and aiding Putin, should they not sign on to a more efficient open border.
The real agendas of the bill’s supporters were absolutely no return to Trump’s legal-only immigration and a secure border.
That simple solution requires no new legislation and almost no new spending. But it does imply acknowledgement that the hated Trump had solved the problem executively—and that admission is apparently taboo.
Finally, public outrage from the left and conservative anger at foolish and naïve Republican enablers stopped the bill.
Still, it remains somewhat unclear why Biden and his Homeland Security chief, Alejandro Mayorkas, destroyed what Trump had achieved. Why would they ensure such misery for both American hosts and millions of illegal immigrants?
Did they want new long-term constituents, given that their neo-socialist agendas cannot win over a majority of current Americans?
Is importing millions of the poorest and most in need on the planet a way to ensure a still larger Great Society of entitlements and, with it, higher taxes on the “filthy rich?”
Do they assume that America’s increasingly non-Election-Day balloting ensures far less authentication and rejection of mail-in ballots, and thus it will be relatively easy for non-citizens to vote?
Many, left and right, make no effort to hide their desire for cheap imported labor—even though the current labor participation rate is only 62 percent of the potential American workforce.
Finally, one might expect this artifice from the left that is wedded to open borders.
But why some establishment Republicans aided and abetted these disingenuous efforts is yet another reminder why the doctrinaire Republican Party had to be reinvented by Donald Trump.
beyond ‘reinvent’ the Repub Party, Pres Trump should develop a whole new one, the GNP, the Great New Party, the “New Republican Party” foundationally based on MAGA principles – it’d quickly be the largest political party in US history, and could start a whole new and necessary redevelopment of Congress, as well…the deep state won’t sit idly by
The link below illustrates how the left has twisted the border bill defeat. The left claims that a closed southern border would hurt Republican 2024 presidential election talking points. Really sad how many believe the left’s propaganda.
Excellent article Victor. Keep up the good work!
https://triblive.com/opinion/joseph-sabino-mistick-border-politics-trump-the-national-interest/
Thank God we’ve awakened! We don’t need anymore criminals in our country as we have enough as it already is!
We are seeing the Cloward-Piven Strategy implemented in an effort to bring our republic down.
Flat-out nihilism moves much of the Left. All they need to unleash it is some pathetic theory.
Well said! Absolutely true! There is no way that the left can lie and weasel their way out of this entire border, illegal immigration crisis and all its ramifications.
I wrote to Joe Biden days before he assumed office and told him that if he wanted a good legacy that he should retain all of Trump’s policies. He did his best to cancel all of Trump’s policies and we are suffering greatly as a result of his “work”. May the electorate hold Biden and the rest of the Democrats accountable for the mess we have today.
What Bill is being referred to in this article?
If it’s the Bill from just a day or two ago, then nobody knows the full details of the provisions contained within. Wasn’t the Senate vote was about advancing the Bill to the House? Which was voted down. Even Bernie Saunders voted against it (as did some of the SQUAD).
Seems like this is more a partisan stunt, from both parties, than an example of honest governance; indicative of the brokenness in American politics. Not to mention, leaves a very real problem, open boarders, still open.
As an avid reader/listener of the Sword of Perseus I would like to know VDH thoughts on how does the USA get out of this quagmire. That would be an interesting post to read or podcast
to listen to.
Knowles doesn’t “know” much: “Bill” is a moniker for William while “bill” is what you mean…
The main issue is an open border. Continuing to allow fewer illegal immigrants across does not fix the problem, it allows it to continue. Some would take the understanding that with the “comprehensive immigration bill,” it is better that something is done, rather than nothing being done. Absurd. The border was secure in 2020. Why should the American people oblige to a resolution that is insufficient? The American people want a resolution that shuts down the border? Not a temporary bandage that does not cure the wound. The Biden Administration is solely responsible for the border crisis. Biden sat at his desk on day one overturning Trumps border policies. And now because Black and Hispanic American communities across the nation are outraged, at this late hour Biden wants to pretend that he cares about the border, and that he is doing something about it. Rather, he has done nothing and is shifting his failure in protecting the border onto republicans. The Biden administration miscalculated its thinking in assuming that the American audience would not respond.
Thanks again Professor Hanson. I do not think your readers, listeners, or viewers are misled by the duplicitous Joseph Robinette Biden or his Secretary of Homeland Security, “Baghdad Bob” Mayorkas, regarding border security. The brain of a ragworm could see through this scam.
They dont have the electorate they would really prefer. So they have to rejigger and correct it
How can any rational American support the policies of the current administration, especially its stance on immigration? How can any President honestly support such an immigration policy that poses an existential threat to the country? This policy is beyond insanity.
Three thing’s the poor immigrants are the establishment; 1/ Votes. 2/ Cheap Labour. 3/ Cannon fodder for the armed services.
I am furious at Republicans and will no longer provide and financial support – The Republicans do not seem interested in support their constituents act more like the uniparty on a daily basis. I encourage everyone to do the same
There is a reason some of the ‘establishment’ Republicans are referred to as RINO. This bill was an example of how accurate that moniker is.
I’m not a professional fact checker or researcher. With some effort I did find some interesting numbers on legal immigration. In 2022, 102 million applications for green cards were “accepted.” That is far lower than the Senate bill arbitrarily allowing 5,000 border crossing. Where is the incentive for migrants to follow legal migration laws?
Dr. Hanson omits one possible reason for the puzzling adherence to a no-border policy: corruption.
The fentanyl trade provides hundreds of billions of dollars for bribes. The Epstein files – more closely guarded than America’s nuclear secrets – provide the means for blackmail. A classic carrot and stick situation.
Indeed, the Epstein case is interesting in that the DOJ/FBI has had his video tapes, recordings, and computer drives after going through his island, NM, NY mansions for weeks at a time, and has covered them up for years with not one charge now is clear indication of the state of justice in the Nation. It’s enough to give a Banana Republic envy. It is understandable that an alleged victim of Ole Joe moved to Russia to escape potential “suicide”.
I’ve been thinking when Washington finally gets serious about closing the border they should also consider putting a bounty on the foreign invaders who came here illegally. We could privatize the process with licensed, bonded bounty hunters to supplement ICE and other government agencies and deport many foreign invaders fairly quickly. In addition, if a few “Dog the Bounty Hunter” celebrities emerged it would help spread the word we are closed for invasion and deter others from coming.
Good idea, especially for the criminal element.
Dan,
You make a good point: let the private sector round up some of these desperate people. I’m sure they would be a welcomed addition to the underfunded and overworked ICE agency.
Wanna bet future anchor babies are being conceived as we write?
yes the lemming left still thinks tech bad guy is Trump and the MAGA republicans….free abortion and Trump as Hitler still resonate more with them than their own individual rights and personal security, financial and otherwise….
“To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.”-Thomas Paine
Yes, it’s a con, a con that too many foolish voters, am i allowed to say “stupid” voters?, chose over Biden/Harris over sanity and well-being. It seems probable that if sufficient voters do not negate whatever cheating the Dems will attempt again this November, and vote to clean up Congress and the media, the dominating Dems will have too much momentum for a GOP candidate to ever win an election going forward. In fact, even if sufficient numbers of voters elect a decent candidate, the left has already indicated they are preparing to do challenges in courts to stop a new GOP president. These groups are financed by the leftist, multi-billionaires, not unlike Zuckerberg did in 2020. So these leftists ignore voter choices in order to install their candidate. They are the superior deniers.
It was commonly accepted that any country would not be able to sustain a generous social welfare system and large scale immigration as financial insolvency would result. How and why politicians around the world decided to ignore this truism is puzzling to me.
One of the greatest examples of how much of the mass media is a subsidiary of the Democrat Party is that I haven’t heard or read any of them giving the faux democrat rationale for Biden allowing 8-10mm (or whatever the numbers are) of ill-educated, non-skilled migrants who need nothing except…everything into the country. It has to be more than whatever Trump did has to be bad, and must be undone. I’ve thought from the beginning that the donks will cite the ”need” for the migrants to get drivers’ licenses ”so they can get to work,” and from there, it’s a tiny leap to get them registered to vote
What gets me is the fact The American people are not a tad bit infuriated at the fact every single one of these illegal alien criminals are getting a free driver license, benefits and a place to live at two times the price we who live here all our lives can’t even live on anymore because the amount of stealing from us the criminals in charge have gotten away with has made it easier to be illegal and breaking the rules over being civil and a resident of this country.
It’s the WEF. They control everything. Everything you see is an attempt to take out Trump and Putin. The border, J6 persecution, transgenderism, pro-Palestine, Ukraine – the list goes on. Blue voters, dissension, anti-humanism, anarchy, etc. The WEF is currently winning. Trump and Putin are the only two things in their way. Don’t be fooled. The elites aren’t worried about us peasants. The illegals will be culled once we are replaced.