A Misguided Approach
A Misguided Approach
President Biden’s border policy damages more than his polling.
(President Joe Biden. Source: Newsweek)
After President Biden took office on January 20, 2021, he issued some 296 border-related executive orders within his first year in office. These executive orders greatly narrowed the number of unauthorized immigrants vulnerable to arrest as yearly border encounters have quadrupled since President Trump left office.
Many illegal immigrants come from unstable political situations where human rights and safety cannot be guaranteed. For their desire to be in America, they cannot be blamed. It takes courage to endure perilous circumstances with the hopes of bringing one’s family to America.
Enabling free migration and an absence of processing create an incentive structure which puts millions of people, both legal and illegal, in harm's way. While many families and well-meaning individuals cross our border with Mexico, cartel members and criminals also cross, intending to stay.
According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) website, in fiscal year 2023, 35,433 illegal aliens with criminal convictions were arrested nationwide, 598 of whom were known gang members. Further, 294 illegal aliens apprehended since the beginning of fiscal year 2021 at the southwest border were on the terrorist watch list.
Meet José Antonio Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan national. In September 2022, Ibarra crossed the United States' southern border illegally. He was arrested by the Border Patrol but released quickly with “temporary permission to stay in the country,” according to The New York Times. This followed a Biden administration order to parole illegal immigrants when officials sustained large influxes.
(José Antonio Ibarra. SOURCE: Fox 5 Atlanta)
Ibarra evaded deportation, making his way to New York City. Police arrested Ibarra in August 2023 for driving a scooter without a license with his child who was not wearing a helmet. He was soon released without being turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Ibarra then went to Athens, Georgia. In October 2023 he was arrested again, in connection with a shoplifting case. Athens-Clarke police promptly released Ibarra.
Finally, Athens-Clarke police arrested Ibarra in February 2024 — this time in connection with the murder of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student at Augusta University. Her body was found in a wooded area near the University of Georgia campus, her skull disfigured.
(Laken Riley. SOURCE: New York Post)
Riley’s murder comes because of a system that repeatedly failed to prevent Ibarra from allegedly committing this heinous crime. He never should have entered the country, yet he did. He should have been deported after his first criminal offense, yet he was not.
The Biden administration and progressive allies facilitated Riley’s murder through two egregious agenda items.
First, within one hundred days of taking office, Biden rescinded many of former-President Trump’s border-related executive orders.
Among others, he targeted the successful “Remain In Mexico” policy. Formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, the “Remain in Mexico” policy would ensure that “foreign individuals entering or seeking admission to the U.S. from Mexico — illegally or without proper documentation — may be returned to Mexico and wait outside of the U.S. for the duration of their immigration proceedings, where Mexico will provide them with all appropriate humanitarian protections for the duration of their stay.”
Ibarra clearly did not remain in Mexico, the Border Patrol instead releasing him into the American interior.
The second agenda item involves the sanctuary city policies long embraced by progressive enclaves; these policies bolster empathetic virtue signaling by limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Athens, Georgia and New York City still embrace sanctuary persuasions, facilitating the environment that allowed Ibarra to run free.
Like Ibarra, an earlier illegal immigrant, Jose Inez-Garcia Zarate, committed an entirely preventable act. On July 4, 2015, Garcia-Zarate accidentally fired a pistol. The shot killed 32-year-old Kate Steinle as she was walking along San Francisco’s Pier 14 with her dad and friend. Garcia-Zarate had been deported five times before the crime. While Garcia-Zarate was acquitted of the murder and manslaughter charges, his preventable presence led to Steinle’s death. The role of santuary cities in this act propelled the rise of Donald Trump.
(Jose Inez-Garcia Zarate. SOURCE: Equitas Law)
The crimes of illegal immigrants are entirely preventable through a strong border stance. Authorities had six chances to prevent the death of Kate Steinle and multiple opportunities to thwart Ibarra’s alleged slaughter of Laken Riley.
But President Biden cannot be counted on to take appropriate action. Instead, he lets the issue linger in congress. It need not be this way.
Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 grants the president broad power to "suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants" if their entry "would be detrimental to the interests of the United States." Further, Biden could reimplement the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy.
During the State of the Union address, Biden addressed the murder of Laken Riley, mistakenly calling her “Lincoln” Riley.
Yet in a follow-up interview on MSNBC, Biden was quick to correct not his mispronunciation of Laken Riley’s name but instead his characterization of Ibarra as an “illegal,” choosing instead the term “undocumented migrant.”
President Biden went on to claim that illegal immigrants “built this country.”
Ultimately, President Biden is more concerned about being politically correct than the lives of innocent Americans.
And to what end? A New York Times/Siena College Poll shows Trump now winning outright among Latino voters — a result within the margin of error. Pundits have speculated that Biden’s soft immigration policies would shore up his Latino voter base. Yet, as The New York Times’ Jennifer Medina recently pointed out, “Polls have repeatedly shown that [Hispanic] voters say they are attracted to Mr. Trump’s stances on the economy and the border.”
Biden’s border stance may cost him by undoing his support amongst Latino voters in November. As Medina writes, “Mr. Trump does not need the support of a majority of Latinos to win in November; merely peeling off a few percentage points among the group could prove decisive.”
[The opinions expressed in this magazine are the author's own and do not reflect the official policy or position of The Spectator, or any students or other contributors associated with the magazine. It is the intention of The Spectator to promote student thought and civil discourse, and it is our hope to maintain that civility in all discussions.]
