It’s no secret that our southern border is in nothing less than disarray, and the blame can be squarely placed on the Biden administration’s rhetoric and policies.
It’s gotten so bad states along the border are having to take extraordinary actions to combat the problem. Governor Greg Abbott of Texas has signed a law authorizing law enforcement to arrest illegal immigrants and even Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs of Arizona has tapped the National Guard to help control the problem.
The Biden administration has actively opposed efforts in those states to stymie illegal immigration, ordering Arizona to remove shipping container walls and actively sabotaging deterrents in Texas. The administration’s rhetoric has also been extremely unhelpful, with Karine Jean-Pierre’s latest word salad on the issue being proof they can’t even describe what in the hell they’ve actually done.
Today, Axios is out with a piece that describes the consequences of the only tactic the country has left to make an immediate change: Closing the border.
Yes, but: There is evidence that even partial closures can have devastating consequences.
- After railway operations in Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas, were temporarily suspended this month to send officers to process migrants, businesses reported a drop in traffic and damage to local economies.
- Eagle Pass and El Paso account for $33.95 billion annually in trade — just shy of 36% of all cross-border rail traffic to and from Mexico, according to the Texas Association of Business.
- “This is a short-sighted, half-baked decision that will not make a dent in illegal migration but will cause economic harm to everyday Americans,” Texas Association of Business president and CEO Glenn Hamer said in a statement.
- It’s unclear when operations in Eagle Pass and El Paso will open again.
Now, this piece is written in response to Republicans – and, in particular, Donald Trump – talking about closing the border. That billions of extra dollars it could cost the U.S. economy, however, wouldn’t be on the Republicans who closed the border but on the Democrats who let it deteriorate to the point that we have to.
The Democrats have long done this, though. They let a problem fester and rot to the point that it’s almost entirely worthless, only to point out how devastating it would be if Republicans attempted any of their “fixes.” Let social security get insolvent, then attack Republicans as trying to take away benefits if they seek to fix it. Reduce the size and scope of the military to make us less safe, then attack Republicans for wanting to spend too much on the military. Enforce roughly zero (0) laws regarding illegal immigration, then attack Republicans as racist and xenophobic – and apparently as colossal wasters of money for trying to fix it.
But the problem isn’t how much it would cost our economy if we closed down the border. The problem is that it almost seems as though we have no border at this time. Our border cities and states are being overrun, and it’s causing worse damage than a few billion in economic impact.
The mass influx of undocumented people isn’t the only problem. It’s the cartels using the crisis to flood our streets with fentanyl and other drugs. It’s the gang violence going on along the border. It’s the guns coming into the country. There are so many issues that we can’t control when we aren’t controlling our own border.
So, when it comes time for a Republican to take over the White House, we’ll have few options other than to shut down some of these major ports of entry, even if it hurts us economically. But that’s the price we’ll have to pay because Democrats let the problem fester for so long. And we shouldn’t let them forget that.
