Borders Or Boarders

Borders Or Boarders

By

Leonard Zwelling

One of the hallmarks of Donald Trump’s run for the White House and his presidency was his stance on policies concerning immigration and the borders of the United States. He famously said “if you don’t have borders, you don’t have a country.” Guess what? He was right!

As a second generation American and grandson of Eastern Europeans who came to America to flee antisemitism and make a new life for themselves, I am acutely aware that the United States remains a beacon of hope for oppressed people all over the world. BUT…

The borders of the United States cannot be open to anyone wishing to come in. My paternal grandfather was a tailor. I still have his sewing machine and a picture of him behind it circa 1920 in Zanesville, Ohio. I also have a suit, a tuxedo and a smoking jacket that he made for himself in his shop there where he settled after coming through Ellis Island. He did not enter the country and become a dependent upon federal largesse.

This is all hitting me after having viewed the mess on the southern border in Del Rio, Texas where mostly ex-Haitians migrated up from South America and Central America to which they had immigrated and now wanted to come into the U.S. Many had no family here and many were probably covid positive. It is still unclear to me why they appeared on the border acutely unless they thought their chances of deportation to Haiti had been diminished with a pending suspension of federal authority to use CDC rules to do the deportation. Nonetheless, many are in the U.S. seeking asylum now. Guess who’s paying room and board? You are.

My point is only that at a time when the Congress cannot even agree to help our own citizens with an expansion of the social safety net, we are boarding people who came here illegally. This is a terrible idea and we must bring pressure to bear on our southern neighbors to curtail this mass migration to places like Del Rio.

I heard a report last night that the federal officials are expecting 400,000 additional migrants to come up through the southern border. No wonder Trump’s wall was so popular with his voters.

I understand that Congress is overwhelmed right now having just passed a budget extension, needing to raise the debt ceiling and having to decide exactly why we need to convert America to a socialist state before we fix the roads. Immigration needs a hard look, too. Now.

Mr. Biden does not seem to be able to control current events let alone future planning, yet that is the job he took. It is high time that he lay down the law to the recalcitrant progressives and make it clear that they will not get everything they want in the expansion of the social safety net or in immigration. Vote for the damned infrastructure bill. The liberals were appalled at the sight of Texas Rangers on horseback having to herd the migrants under the Del Rio overpass back from the border. What were they supposed to do, let all 15,000 in? Oh wait, they almost did anyway.

No one is saying that any of these many problems are not vexing. Health care reform, pre-K education, lower cost medicines and climate reform are all critical issues facing the President and Congress. Immigration is too, but if they cannot rise to the occasion and formulate meaningful and economic solutions to the many problems facing America, step aside and let someone else try. The Biden apologists and the Pelosi apologists and the Schumer apologists are just as bad as the apologists for Trump, McConnell, McCarthy and Cruz. If you folks cannot run the country, give someone else a chance. Maybe a legal immigrant can do better even if he or she could not become President.