President Biden’s policy on the border crisis: Say one thing, do the opposite — and hope no one notices.
Just 14 days after signing a “border-tightening” executive order that amounted to little more than a publicity stunt, the prez on Tuesday announced two “reforms” that would streamline legalization for two groups of illegal migrants: some “dreamers” (adults brought to the country as children, protected from deportation under an Obama-era executive order) and half a million illegal immigrants now married to US citizens — shielding the latter from deportation and granting them work permits in the meantime.
To add insult to injury, in the same address, he claimed “every nation must secure its borders.”
These moves (and others likely to come) are meant to reassure the open-borders left that his feint toward enforcement is only a feint.
Thing is, potential border-jumpers get the message too: If you can end-run the legal immigration process, US progressives will eventually find some way to kosherize you anyway.
The actual law requires illegal immigrants with citizen spouses to return to their home countries to apply for permanent residency; some are banned from reentry for 10 to 20 years.
Having already stretched his “parole” powers (which are supposed to apply to individuals, case by case) to let in millions of “asylum seekers,” Biden is doing it again, offering “parole in place” to illegal immigrants who’ve lived here for at least 10 years and are married to a US citizen.
They can now apply for permanent residency while remaining in the United States; those OK’d could then apply for green cards and work permits.
His offer “only” applies to those who got before he announced the new policy — but it’s still a clear incentive to find some spouse so you’re ready for the next “parole,” as well as to faking proof of a marriage before the cutoff date.
Biden’s other “reform” would speed up work permits for already-registered “dreamers” and other non-citizen students who graduate US colleges — again by ignoring the clear letter of the law.
White House aides think voters will see these amnesties as reasonable because the beneficiaries are sympathetic — but those same aides failed to foresee the fury over opening the border in the first place.
They’re stuck in an elite echo chamber, imagining Biden’s pretend “border crackdown” on June 4 fixed his main problem and now he just needs to reassure the left.
In fact, voters will see that he couldn’t even stick to his “get tough” script for two weeks — let alone actually get tough — and he’s making fresh mockery of US immigration law.
A vote for Biden is a vote for more amnesty and four more years of weak borders.
What will it take for whoever’s running this administration to realize that spin doesn’t substitute for action?