by Brian Lonergan
Joe Biden in 2020 promised he would return “normalcy” to the White House, that the adults would be back in charge, and that America would enter a new era of prosperity. In other news, the Titanic is an unsinkable ship and Enron stock is the foundation of a solid investment portfolio.
It is becoming difficult for even the most partisan Biden supporter to put a positive spin on the current administration’s growing list of failures. The centerpiece of the White House’s calamity is its immigration policy, which is deeply unpopular with a majority of Americans. It is even less popular in America’s courts, where judges continue to reject Biden’s attempt to impose a unilateral vision of a borderless country and all the suffering that comes with it.
This is a much-needed check on executive power. From the moment he walked into the Oval Office as president, Biden has reset America’s immigration policy on a radical and dangerous trajectory.
Among Biden’s first acts in office were the signing executive orders reversing Trump Administration policies that maintained operational control of the border. While these orders pleased his extreme-left base, they resulted in unmitigated chaos at the border. Illegal crossings as well as profits for drug and human trafficking cartels soared as outmanned and demoralized border agents were overwhelmed.
Faced with an administration that has abandoned its responsibility to protect its citizens and a slim majority in Congress fully supporting the mayhem, America’s last hope was the judiciary. To the surprise of many, America’s courts have dealt this White House and its anti-borders agenda defeat after defeat.
Most recently, a federal district court in Texas vacated a number of Biden Administration policies that had the purpose and effect of releasing large numbers of dangerous alien criminals into America. The Supreme Court also reversed a ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowing class-action lawsuits by detained aliens, in which the aliens demanded bond hearings for their release, to proceed. The ruling effectively shut down such lawsuits from aliens in detention seeking release into the United States, but who are free to leave at any time if they return to their homelands.
Since assuming office, Biden has also suffered defeats from courts on issues including non-enforcement of alien removals, COVID-related expulsions, the “Remain in Mexico” asylum policy, and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, to name a few.
The recent Texas case revealed the Biden Administration’s skewed interpretations of the law, and the disastrous consequences they have produced. In its brief in the case, attorneys from the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) showed that the detention and removal of the criminal aliens at issue is not optional to the administration, but mandatory under the law.
In agreeing with the IRLI brief, the court also showed in great detail how the administration’s policies are deliberately constructed to achieve an inconceivable purpose: the release of dangerous alien criminals—including rapists, child molesters, and other violent criminals—back into the country.
Such goals would be expected from a radical, anti-borders non-profit organization. The fact that these are the goals of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States should terrify all who care about the safety of their families, communities, and country.
Given these fringe policies and the accumulating video evidence that suggests Biden is non compos mentis, there is a tendency to think that Biden is merely a figurehead while left-wing staffers are calling the shots. This gives Biden an undeserved pass, as his record of out-of-the-mainstream immigration policies precedes his time in the White House.
This is the same career politician who, as Barack Obama’s number two, bragged about seeking an “unrelenting stream of immigration, nonstop.” How would such a policy affect the American people and the nation at large? Such questions apparently are mere annoyances while pandering to new voter blocs to cement power for oneself.
While the courts have been essential in impeding Biden’s immigration agenda, they should really be a last resort. The most effective check on power would be a nation of engaged citizen-activists who speak in a clear and unrelenting voice to their elected representatives that such radicalism is not supported and will no longer be tolerated.
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Brian Lonergan is an adjunct fellow of the Center for American Greatness and director of communications at the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a public interest law firm working to defend the rights and interests of the American people from the negative effects of mass migration.
