One thing I have always appreciated about the Independent is their willingness to publish views that may run counter to the prevailing wisdom of their readers. It’s extremely important that we do not retreat to our very safe echo chambers, only hearing what we want to hear. In that vein, I am going to try to expose many of the Indy readers to a viewpoint about the immigration debate that they may not have heard before.
In the four years Joe Biden was president, there were at least 10 million encounters at U.S. border, not including at least 2 million “gotaways” entering the country. In one year alone, the number was as high as 3 million encounters. It is estimated that 67 percent of the 10 million unauthorized encounters were allowed into the U.S., a number somewhere between 6 million and 7 million people. The so-called “gotaways” are migrants who illegally crossed and evaded U.S. Border Control. They are not included in the aforementioned encounters. What makes these numbers so startling is that by the end of Trump’s first term, the number of crossings had dwindled to just a fraction of the numbers we were seeing during the Biden years.
So what happened that would account for this enormous increase in unauthorized encounters? Well, Biden, in his first day in office, signed a number of executive orders that reversed the immigration policies that were in effect at the time. The most important executive order rescinded the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which required asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while their cases were being adjudicated. Trump had to threaten Mexico with tariffs to get them to enforce the policy. Ultimately, they agreed to do it which pretty much solved the problem. Once Biden rescinded the policy, the dam broke wide open and a flood of immigrants deluged the border in numbers we have never seen before.
In order to process the huge number of immigrants at the border, many were flown to cities and towns across the country, putting a significant burden on social services and budgetary resources for these municipalities. They had to be housed, fed and the children needed to be placed in schools. Healthcare had to be provided to keep them from getting sick. The Republican governor of Texas also bused many of them to blue states, like New York, because he considered it grossly unfair to be burdened with the entire problem because they were a border state and also due to federal policies he had no control over.
The question today is what do we do with all of the people who crossed the border during Biden’s four years. I think most people agree, even in blue state like California, that if you come here and commit a violent crime or even a significant misdemeanor, you should not remain in the U.S. The problem is that California remains a sanctuary state and almost all the cities and towns in California have sanctuary laws.
This means that local authorities can release an undocumented immigrant from jail without notifying or handing over the person to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). There are minor exceptions to the rule but generally there is no cooperation. What this does is force ICE to find these people in the communities, leading to deportation raids that sometimes results in people being picked up without criminal records. If the state of California and local governments would agree to cooperate with federal authorities, I am sure they could get the federal government to limit these deportation raids by identifying the undocumented immigrants with criminal records and handing them over to ICE for deportation.
However, inexplicably California refuses to cooperate. Even the immigrant community doesn’t favor allowing criminals to remain here. How do I know this? Because according to most exit polls, 44 percent of Hispanics in the U.S. voted for Trump. In Texas, where the problem of illegal crossings is most acute, 55 percent of Hispanics voted for Trump. The reason why is not hard to discern. The problem of illegal immigration is felt much more in immigrant communities, where they are more affected than white communities by housing shortages, homelessness and crime.
I know many in Santa Barbara think it’s cruel and inhumane to deport illegal aliens or undocumented immigrants, but the question I would ask is how many of the millions that did cross border in the 2021-2024 timeframe should get to remain in the U.S.? Some would say all of them, but I think a majority of my fellow citizens believe it is less than 100 percent. Even if you think it should be a relatively low percentage, that is going to involve hundreds of thousands and potentially millions of people who will have to be deported. If it does happen, I, too, want to see it done humanely and with great sensitivity. I know this isn’t a popular sentiment, but if you are looking for someone to blame for this predicament, I think it has to be the previous president, for reasons that are still unclear, for deciding to open our borders to the entire world.
To reiterate, I believe most people agree that most undocumented immigrants who have been here for a long time and are productive members of our community should not be harassed by the federal govt or anyone else. However, we all know it is not practical to allow all of the most recent undocumented immigrants to stay. I am not sure how to remove immigrants who shouldn’t be here, but I know most reasonable people don’t think it’s right to riot to impede a solution. There will have to be solution and, hopefully, there are enough fair-minded and rational people in our government, including at the state and local levels, that can craft a reasonable policy to solve this problem.
