Biden finally visits the border, but Abbott is right to say it’s too little, too late | Opinion
The border crisis has been at a fever pitch for two years, but only now has President Joe Biden decided it was time to visit. His quick trip to El Paso on Sunday is two years and a few too over-reactive policies too late for his visit to make much sense or much difference.
Biden’s tightly controlled, whirlwind of a photo-op was just that — for appearance’s sake. Really, an in-person visit at this juncture isn’t necessary: A Zoom call would have saved taxpayers thousands. There really is such a thing as too little, too late.
Some of Biden’s policies ratcheted up an already-frustrating border issue when he took office. In June 2021, Biden formally ended the Trump-era policy of returning asylum seekers to Mexico. In mid-December, just last month, Title 42 was set to expire, though Chief Justice John Roberts placed it on hold. That’s another Trump-era measure that authorizes federal agents to return to Mexico immigrants crossing the border illegally, in the name of quelling the spread of COVID.
Thus, the border has been overrun: Biden’s policies have caused the border to be essentially open to all, legal and illegal, asylum-seeking and hard-working, innocent and drug cartels. The numbers are stunning: From October 2021 to September 2022, Border Patrol agents encountered almost 2.4 million immigrants crossing illegally into the United States.
That is a dramatic uptick from Trump’s presidency. The number of unaccompanied immigrant children crossing the border has increased too, more than 250,000 in Biden’s first 18 months. This turns a border crisis or an immigration problem into a heartbreaking humanitarian one.
Gov Greg Abbott’s for Biden to “secure our border by enforcing Congress’s immigration laws” was spot on. Biden won’t do it, but he should. Instead, he’ll waste his time showing up two years too late to a crisis he should have been paying attention to because his policies helped create it.
Mr. President, don’t bother with the charade. Just fix the problem.
This story was originally published January 10, 2023 at 5:31 AM.
