Illegal migrants blocked Times Square and called for the abolishment of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE. This comes as they are said not to be happy with the Executive Order Biden signed, which essentially does nothing to stop illegal immigration. The executive order was issued early this month June, and US president Joe Biden claimed it would restrict migrants from claiming asylum if they cross the US border illegally and would help “gain control of the border.
However, just days after the order was signed, US Customs and Border Protection agents in the southern California sector received a memo instructing them to release single adults from over 100 eastern hemisphere countries, except for six (Uzbekistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Georgia, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan) deemed “mandatory referral” countries. This means despite the president’s promise of stopping the uncontrolled inflow of illegal migrants between border checkpoints, the majority, including Chinese, Middle Eastern, and African adults, are still being released into the US. But, the protesters still felt an impetus to take to the streets.
Biden’s executive order is nothing more than optically pleasing headlines before the September presidential debates. First, it was Biden’s “open border” policies that created the unprecedented border crisis. On day one of becoming president, Biden announced an order to terminate former President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency concerning our southern border. Biden’s EO also paused the construction of the border wall and redirected the funds elsewhere. On day two, Biden suspended Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” program and ended the program formally six months later. The “Remain in Mexico” program kept in Mexico asylum-seekers from Central America and elsewhere until their immigration court hearings in the U.S. The program successfully returned an estimated 68,000 migrants to Mexico during the Trump presidency.
Furthermore, the Biden administration also relinquished its responsibility to enforce immigration law. According to a 2023 House Judiciary Committee report, “the Biden Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has failed to remove more than 99 percent of illegal immigrants through immigration court proceedings” between Jan. 20, 2021, and March 31, 2023. During this period, there were more than 5 million illegal alien encounters. The Biden administration reportedly “eased its scrutiny in reviewing asylum claims,” and “immigration judges have granted nearly 80% of claims in the last three years.”
Fewer than 6,000 illegal immigrants were removed from the United States. In 2022, the Biden administration also introduced a parole program that has had significant consequences. This program allows up to 30,000 asylum-seekers from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to enter the U.S. each month. The program allowed the Biden administration to release nearly half a million “inadmissible immigrants” into the interior of the US, often with “little or no vetting, – all of which was discovered through the House Committee on Homeland Security’s latest fact sheet. The executive order is clearly just for show.
So, why were the illegal migrants protesting at Times Square dissatisfied with the executive order that does not do much to stop illegal migration? It appears that they got used to a culture of lawlessness through a Biden administration that undermined border security laws to bring them in and did not punish them for their crimes – and this is especially considering that the ICE that they want abolished was created for the purpose of protecting America through criminal investigations and enforcing immigration laws to preserve national security and public safety.
HOWEVER, in contrast to the protesters, Americans are saying that, if Biden really wants to fix the border crisis, he should stop funding for all the sanctuary cities, halt all of the government payments and housing assistance to illegal migrants to urge self-deportation; and then detain, arrest and deport all illegal immigrants immediately. And this perspective from Americans is understandable: it is a problem when laws are bent to cater to the best interest of foreign nations at the expense of the primary duty to citizens. It is especially concerning when these illegal migrants even feel politically empowered to change the law of the land to best suit their demands because they are aware of the government’s greater inclination towards their demands over its citizens. What Democrats have been doing is simply importing voters for themselves. Immigration for them has been a tool for vote manipulation in elections, among other things. But, also kindly have a listen to Senator John Kennedy’s remarks at the Senate Republican press briefing following the Executive Order, and he especially emphasises that all Biden is doing is playing politics with the executive order.
