(March 7, 2024, Washington, D.C.) Instead of taking responsibility for the border crisis and changing course, President Biden used tonight's State of the Union address to blame the border crisis on Congress' failure to enact flimsy and meaningless legislation, charged the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).
Indeed, President Biden, who has spent the past three years denying that we have a crisis and refusing to enforce countless laws, claimed tonight that he is powerless to act. The president told the American people he lacks the legal authority to secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws. He further accused Congress – particularly Republicans – of killing a Senate bill that he claimed would have rectified the crisis that has made illegal immigration the top issue on the minds of American voters.
"The truth is, President Biden has had all the authority he needs to end the border crisis that has been raging since January 20, 2021," stated Dan Stein, president of FAIR. "But instead of enforcing the law, he and his impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, have willfully ignored or subverted countless statutes, systematically dismantled the immigration enforcement capacity of agencies dedicated to that purpose, and canceled existing policies that deterred illegal immigration and asylum fraud.
"Moreover, by pointing to the failed Senate bill, President Biden willfully misled the American people about what is needed to end this crisis," Stein continued. "The Senate bill is not the solution. The bill authored by Senators Lankford, Murphy, and Sinema would have actually codified illegal immigration at historically high levels, exacerbating threats to national security and the costs to American taxpayers.
"If Biden wants a secure border, all he has to do is uphold his constitutional oath to enforce the law. If he wants Congress to give him additional, meaningful authority, then he should urge Congress to pass H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act. That bill -- a serious immigration enforcement bill -- has already passed the House of Representatives. H.R. 2 closes all of the loopholes that President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas have exploited to create the crisis he now acknowledges, and provides the resources and manpower necessary to ensure the security of the nation. Nevertheless, the Democratic-controlled Senate, with the support of the president's administration, is blocking that bill from being enacted.
"It is clear from the president's address that he does not want to solve this crisis. Rather he is intent on shifting blame for the humanitarian, public safety and national security crisis that was created by his administration," Stein concluded.
The anatomy of the illegal immigration crisis and why the Senate bill would not solve it:
Beginning on his first day in office, President Biden and his administration have:
Canceled construction of the border wall, including sections already paid for by American taxpayers.
Canceled the Migrant Protection Protocols, aka Remain in Mexico, which required migrants seeking asylum to wait in Mexico while their claims were pending.
Canceled the Asylum Cooperative Agreements with Central American governments, which required migrants passing through those countries to seek asylum in the first safe country they arrived in.
Reinstated catch-and-release policies, under which more than 85 percent of illegal aliens encountered at the southern border are allowed to enter the country.
Refused to utilize available detention beds to hold illegal aliens.
Created massive and illegal parole programs that have allowed entry of millions of otherwise inadmissible aliens.
Crafted policies that expressly limit removal of illegal aliens to only the most hardened and dangerous criminals and terrorists.
Top ten reasons why the Senate bill would not end the border and illegal immigration crisis:
The primary reason we have a crisis on our southern border is because the Biden administration is releasing illegal aliens instead of detaining and removing them. Yet, the Senate border bill does not restrict the government's ability to release illegal aliens into the interior of the U.S. Under the Senate bill, it's business as usual.
The Senate border bill does nothing to limit the abuse of humanitarian parole. Parole is one of the main tools the Biden administration has used to release illegal aliens into the U.S., and indeed, even to fly them in from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
The Senate border bill creates a new asylum system under which any alien merely claiming asylum must be released before they are ever screened by an asylum officer to determine whether their claim is credible. It is nothing more than a new catch-and-release program that will spark a historic rush on our southern border, encourage even more asylum fraud, and allow millions of unvetted aliens to settle into communities nationwide.
The Senate border bill promises speedy asylum screenings, but that's a façade. The language only requires that initial screenings be held within 90 days "to the greatest extent practicable." Thus, there is no legal requirement that asylum screenings take place quickly and nothing that will hold the Department of Homeland Security accountable.
Under the Senate bill, if the government is unable to conduct an asylum screening within 90 days, the government must give the alien a work permit anyway, whether their claim is credible or not. This allows illegal aliens to abscond with exactly what they wanted: the ability to live and work in the U.S.
Although the Senate border bill creates an expulsion authority for illegal aliens apprehended at the border, the provision only becomes mandatory after a staggering amount of illegal immigration has already taken place: 5,000 illegal border crossers per day over seven days (or 8,500 illegal aliens crossing in one day).
The new expulsion authority is riddled with exceptions. The expulsion authority does not apply to asylum-seekers and parolees at the ports of entry, and it does not apply to any group of persons the government feels should be exempted "based on the totality of the circumstances."
Worst of all, under the Senate bill, the expulsion authority may only be used for a limited number of days each year and expires in three years, leaving the American people in the same situation we are now.
The Senate proposal requires the Department of Homeland Security to process a minimum of 1,400 inadmissible aliens per day along the southwest border, even when the expulsion authority is triggered. Clearly, the Senate authors knew that their bill would not stop the flow of illegal migrants across the border.
The Senate border deal spends more taxpayer dollars to subsidize illegal immigration by appropriating $1.4 billion to the Shelter and Services Program (SSP), which awards grants to NGOs and sanctuary cities that facilitate illegal immigration. This is in addition to the hundreds of millions spent for the State Department to provide "migrant assistance" and "economic assistance" to Central American countries.
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