As soon as Donald Trump entered office, he set to work toughening up our border security situation and making it harder for illegal aliens to enter (and remain in) the United States. Last year, after the pandemic arrived, he took the additional step of instituting a zero-tolerance policy for illegal border crossings, with the perpetrators being immediately sent back to Mexico without waiting for a hearing. Of course, now that President Joe “Open Borders” Biden is in charge, things had to change. Biden’s acting Attorney General released an announcement this week that the zero-tolerance policy is ending. Moving forward, we’re to return to “judging perpetrators” on a case by case basis with compassion. (Associated Press)
The Justice Department rescinded a Trump-era memo that established a “zero tolerance” enforcement policy for migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, which resulted in thousands of family separations.
Acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson issued the new memo to federal prosecutors across the nation on Tuesday, saying the department would return to its longstanding previous policy and instructing prosecutors to act on the merits of individual cases.
“Consistent with this longstanding principle of making individualized assessments in criminal cases, I am rescinding — effective immediately — the policy directive,” Wilkinson wrote.
What Wilkinson is actually talking about here is selective enforcement, which works alright for minor traffic violations, but not securing the border. It remains illegal to cross the border of the United States without the proper paperwork and permissions unless you are a citizen. If CBP finds someone crawling under the fence and they turn out to be an American citizen with proper identification who was simply lost, that’s easy to sort out quickly and send them on their way. The same goes for tourists with the appropriate visa or other documentation. (Though you’re really only supposed to enter at one of the designated border crossing points.)
If the person turns out to not have any valid claim to enter the country, there isn’t much of a discussion to be engaged in regarding “the merits of the individual case.” If the person is crossing illegally, they’ve broken the law and we have established rules for how to handle them. Under zero-tolerance, they could simply be loaded on a bus and sent back to Mexico. Without it, you can arrest them, charge them, and take them to court before deporting them.
The obvious indication from Wilkinson is that some people are breaking the law less than others, perhaps when it’s a family unit or they have children with them. It sounds like we may be enforcing the law against single men (in some cases) but everyone else gets a pass. This is nothing short of dereliction of duty. Both the President and the Attorney General have taken a vow to protect and defend the Constitution and uphold the laws of the land. That includes our immigration laws.
But hey… what’s the big deal, right? You enforce this law, you perhaps don’t enforce that one quite so much. Who’s going to notice, after all? Heck, while we’re at it, why don’t you just appropriate some money and start tearing down the existing sections of the border wall?
Holy cow. What am I saying? I shouldn’t be giving these people ideas.