Democrats, Republicans need to stop lying about immigration policy

Republicans continue to lie with ease about President Biden’s immigration record, accusing the administration of doing things that it isn’t really doing. But then Democrats are spreading some lies of their own, insisting that Biden is being forced to do things that he was likely inclined to do anyway. Republic Republicans claim and sound bites suitable for bumper stickers that Biden opened up the US Mexico border, put out a welcome mat and told the whole world to come on in and that they say is why Border Patrol agents had nearly 2.5 million encounters with migrants at the southern border in fiscal year 2023. No, Biden did not open the border if he had the Border Patrol would have had 00 encounters with migrants at the US Mexico border last year, not 2.5 million of them. You see encounters is a euphemism for arrest apprehensions turnarounds, because service can’t have it both ways. They can’t go around claiming that anyone who wants to come into the United States can do so freely, at the same time, turn around and praise the border patrol for keeping out so many people. In other words, it’s tough to maintain an open border when you have nearly 20,000 Border Patrol agents, along with their vehicles, drones, boats, helicopters and electronic surveillance equipment policing it. No, Biden didn’t put out a welcome map. He literally dispatched vice president Kamala Harris, to Mexico and Central America to tell anyone who was thinking of making the dangerous journey north to the United States to stay put and not come. Harris made clear that anyone who tried to migrate without authorization would be arrested and sent home migrants and refugees might have perceived the Biden administration to be kinder and gentler and more lenient than the Trump administration that preceded it. But some of that might just have been wishful thinking on the part of the migrants and refugees who want a better life. And no, finally, Biden did not tell the whole world to come on through to the United States. This narrative is particularly offensive because it is born of American arrogance. You see, we’re told the President of the United States is so powerful, that He alone can control the people of the world, what they do, where they go, whether they stay home, or migrate somewhere else. The truth is that with war, earthquakes, famine, hurricanes, poverty, gang violence, political assassinations, natural disasters and social upheavals happening all over the world, the whole globe was going to come to the United States backdoor, regardless, no matter who the President was. It just happened to be Biden. But then there are the Democrats. They can’t make up their mind about whether they want to deal with immigration by being tough or compassionate. So they are all too eager to back Biden as he tries to be both simultaneously, often with disastrous results. On the one hand, Biden campaign for president on the promise that he would strike down and reverse all of Trump’s immigration policies. But once in office, Biden wound up keeping most of those policies. In fact, he borrowed most of his immigration agenda from his predecessor. There’s title 42, the provision of us code that allows the US government to keep out migrants in the name of preserving public health that was struck down not by the by the administration, but by the courts. Biden also plans to build 23 miles of fencing and walls along the US Mexico border after promising that he would not build another foot of it. The administration has also mastered the quick processing of migrants at the border, shipping them back home, without giving them access to legal counsel or a chance to plead their case for asylum. Now that House Republicans have gotten into the act and blackmailed the White House into supporting even more immigration crackdowns and exchange for approving additional foreign aid to vital US allies, like Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. And now the Biden seems prepared to go along with the demands to crack down on the border. A new narrative has taken hold. It suggests that you see, Biden doesn’t really want to be a hard ass on immigration. The Republicans are making him do it. They’re forcing him to be this way. Lies, lies and more lies on the right and on the left by liberals and by conservatives. Doesn’t anyone in Washington tell the truth anymore? What am I saying? Did they ever