From the moment he took office, President Joe Biden set out on a warpath to reverse as many of his predecessor’s policies as he could.
Surely Biden realizes that his most appealing quality to the tens of millions who voted for him was that he’s not Donald Trump, and he wasted no time at all in making that clear.
Regarding immigration, Biden immediately halted the building of a wall on our southern border, which was almost completed during Trump’s presidency.
It didn’t take long after Biden was sworn in for migrants to rush the border and enter our country illegally. Much like students who run wild in the classroom when there’s a substitute teacher, these Persons Here Illegally knew there was now a soft guy at the helm.
Worst-case scenario, they figured, they’d just get sent back. More likely, though, they’d either never be caught or, if they were, they’d be released on their word of honor that they’d return for a later immigration court date. Talk about a can’t-lose proposition.
Biden’s latest abuse of our immigration laws is a further distortion of the meaning of “temporary protected status,” whose restrictions, in fairness, have been ignored by numerous administrations.
A political activist speaking out against a ruthless dictator in a foreign country would be granted permanent asylum in the U.S. However, those fleeing a temporary situation, such as an earthquake or civil unrest, who seek asylum not because of who they are but because of their country or region of origin, would be denied. Instead, they’d receive TPS. The logic is that a dictator’s critic is an enemy for life, but when a national problem is resolved, random individuals may return without fear of persecution.
But temporary protected status is supposed to be just that — temporary. Over the past couple of decades, the requirements have been loosened considerably, and “temporary” has morphed into “permanent.”
And now, Biden has relaxed the rules even more.
Is Biden encouraging illegal immigration?
As I explain in my book “Stop Calling Them ‘Immigrants,’” there are two kinds of PHIs: those who entered the country illegally and those who entered legally but overstayed their allotted time and thus defaulted to illegal status.
The latter enjoy a few more opportunities than the former because they’ve been vetted. If, for example, they were wanted criminals or terrorists, they’d pop up on the radar and would be denied entry. But border-jumpers never got inspected by anyone, and so they are denied the chance to, say, gain legal permanent residence and eventual U.S. citizenship through job sponsorship or marriage.
Thanks to Biden’s Department of Homeland Security, though, now they can simply leave the country and be inspected upon their return. Their previous history of illegal entry magically disappears, and just like anyone else, if the opportunity arises, they can apply to live here legally forever.
Some will argue that they’re going to be vetted anyway, so if they’re really on the Most Wanted list they won’t get those immigration privileges when the time comes, so what’s the difference? They fail to understand that this gives potential illegal entrants even more incentive to come here, especially from countries whose conditions would merit TPS status.
The problem is not the multitudes of peaceful, law-abiding folks from those countries who really want to escape the horrors there. Rather, it’s the bad guys. Sure, there are fewer of them, but as we tragically learned on 9/11, even one is too many.
Most Americans are not extremists on any issue, including immigration. They neither want the immigration door to be completely closed nor completely open. But they want a responsible system through which good people are allowed to visit, study and even live here as long as they provide a benefit to the country and don’t take jobs and homes and college classroom seats away from those who were born here.
But there are some really bad people out there who want to come here and do bad things. And our immigration system must be vigilant in preventing them from infiltrating.
After all, the security guard at the bank must be alert at all times, even though the vast majority of those who enter are good people looking to make a deposit or cash a check.
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