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Donald Trumps solution was to build a wall and insult migrants. Left off his playbook for curbing illegal immigration was any punishment for employers who hired undocumented workers. That would inconvenience farmers, he said.

As it turned out, the wall wasnt built, and those entering illegally didnt care about the insults. They wanted work, and they got it.

Fixing immigration requires two things. One, we must remove the job magnet by punishing employers who hire the undocumented. Two, we must determine how many immigrants we need and with what skills. That will mean accepting more people legally.

Neither solution relies entirely on police, horses and miles of wall. And that brings us to the unexpected quiet at the border following the end of the Title 42.

Under Trumps Title 42, purportedly designed to stop the spread of COVID-19, migrants were quickly turned back at the border. What sounded stern was nothing but a revolving door. Title 42 came with no consequences for illegal entry. Anyone turned away could try again and again and probably succeed.

The Biden administrations new policy seems actually tougher. Someone caught coming over the border illegally would face a five-year ban on reentry. And those breaking the law could also face deportation and possible criminal prosecution.

More than anything else, that five-year ban on even trying to get here illegally is probably bringing more peace to the border.

But here is a dilemma that may persist: The great majority of migrants come here for economic reasons, not fear of persecution at home. There are pathways for economic migrants to apply for legal status, but getting a green light might take years or fail. A way to jump the line has been to show up at the border and ask for asylum.

Up to now, the initial bar for establishing a credible fear of returning to ones country of origin has been fairly low. Those who pass it are given a court date for a final decision where a grant of asylum is much harder to obtain. But because of the court backlog, such migrants would have years of working in this country before their case is heard.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas insists that its now harder to make that first credible claim at the border. We will see what happens. In the meantime, Biden is opening new pathways for legal immigration in regional processing centers throughout Central and South America.

Note that illegal immigration to the United States hit its lowest level in 40 years under Barack Obama, not Trump. Obama was not afraid to deport people or confront personal attacks by the open-border forces on his left. Biden will have to do likewise.

And Republicans will have to stand up to the cheap-labor right. Trumps apparent rival, Gov. Ron DeSantis, has yet to show that courage.

DeSantis recently signed a law that required big Florida companies or those doing state business to check the legal status of all hires with an electronic database. Left out were most restaurants, tourist operations, maintenance services the very businesses that employ large numbers of undocumented workers.

Florida Republicans recently passed a bill that hands DeSantis $12 million to fly undocumented migrants to such liberal places as Marthas Vineyard in Massachusetts. Wouldnt that money be more usefully spent enforcing labor practices in the kitchens and on landscaping trucks in Miami? (That assumes they really care.)

According to the Migration Policy Institute, Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties are home to nearly as many unauthorized people as the entire state of Massachusetts, which has well over two times the population.

America needs both parties to secure the border. Democrats have started, and Republicans are invited.

Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com.

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Harrop: America needs both parties to secure the border - Daily Herald

Americas southern border has challenged policymakers for decades. The 1,951-mile U.S.-Mexico border spans deserts, rivers, and urban areas and is annually bombarded with tens of thousands of people trying to illegally enter our country, many of whom come from Venezuela, Colombia, and Honduras.

Illegal immigration has played an increasingly important role in recent presidential elections, with candidate Donald Trump making bold promises in 2016 to build a 1,000 mile long border wall and send Mexico the bill.

Trumps wall never fully materialized. Only approximately eighty miles of it covering areas previously without a fence were constructed during his administration.

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Those who understand the roots of Americas immigration woes know the underlying issues go much deeper than a failure to erect physical barriers.

Americas immigration laws which grant rights to asylum seekers and dictate punishments for illegal entrants are the true driver of illegal immigration.

The controversy surrounding the expiration of title 42 (commonly referred to as the remain in Mexico policy) demonstrates just how important these laws are.

Title 42 was a Covid-era policy implemented by the Trump administration that did not carry the weight of the law. On its face, Title 42 aimed sought to minimize immigration while communities across the nation struggled to prevent transmission of the virus although progressive activists argued the pandemic was an excuse for Trump to take otherwise impossible border action.

What existed before Title 42 and what is permanent immigration law is Title 8. It makes illegal entry a misdemeanor, puts those who enter again on a five-year ban list and gives prosecutors the ability to charge those caught a third time with a felony.

Democrats are caught between a rock and a hard place politically on this issue where the realities of governance clash with the idealogical ideals of the partys progressive base. There is also selective interpretation, as Barack Obamas Immigration Detention Centers became Trump-era Kids in Cages, which in turn became Biden era Migrant Child Facilities.

Progressives decried Trumps policies as racist throughout his administration. For example, a 2019 Time magazine column was entitled Trumps Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Was Never About Legality It Was About Our Brown Skin.

President Joe Biden set himself up for a crisis. Years of Democratic rhetoric supporting illegal immigration had a predictable effect leading to more illegal immigration once a Democrat was in office. That was clearly illustrated by the radical increase in border patrol encounters with illegal aliens after Biden took office.

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While border encounters are not the end-all-be-all statistic for illegal immigration analysis, (because administrations can structure policies to minimize encounters in order to make the numbers give a false impression), they are in line with other information about the increase in illegal immigration.

Last month, U.S. Border Patrol chief Raul Ortiz testified to Congress that the federal government doesnt have operational control of the border i.e. that the border is not secure. His warning came shortly after a whistleblower within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told Congress the agency lost 85,000 unaccompanied children two thirds of whom are believed to be exploitatively employed in violation of child labor laws.

The recent actions of Democratic lawmakers indicate the American people Democrats included are alarmed by the state of the southern border. During the 2022 midterm elections, numerous victorious Democratic candidates including U.S. senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania broke from Biden on immigration. Fetterman told Politico in April 2022 that we should not end Title 42 until we have a detailed plan in place.

Democratic Senators Maggie Hassan, Catherine Masto and Mark Kelly expressed discontent with Bidens border policy in an updated Politico report as the expiration of title 42 approached.

Theres having things on a piece of paper and then what is going on on the southern border and there is a huge disconnect, Kelly told the publication.

The practical concerns of these lawmakers many of whom anticipate immigration playing an important role in their next election are not shared by all in power, as was demonstrated in 2021 when the Biden White House leveled false allegations that U.S. border patrol agents whipped Haitian immigrants while chasing them on horseback.

Despite an investigation indicating there was no merit to the allegations, the White House has yet to apologize to the agents falsely accused or to the agency.

(Click to view)

This public relations snafu likely the result of ideologically driven White House staffers buying too much into their own rhetoric shows the sway the anti-immigration enforcement wing has (or had) within the White House.

It seems that political realities weigh heavier on Biden administration officials as they prepare for the 2024 presidential election. They implemented new standards that mimic title 42 rules as the Trump era policy expired.

Immigration reporter Alicia Caldwell of The Wall Street Journal summed up Bidens rules, saying, those who cross illegally, and havent asked for protections in other countries by and large wont be eligible theyll face swift deportation.

The administration also announced plans to build immigration processing facilities in Central and South America to preemptively process asylum requests and has asked for more resources for border patrol use.

While progressives decry this policy (the ACLU sued the government over it) and Republicans continue to disparage the presidents poor handling of the issue the reality is any permanent solution for this problem must come from Congress.

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The roadblocks in the way of possible reform are significant. For the millions of illegal aliens who have lived in America for years and for the employers who rely on their labor to operate their businesses a path for naturalization is a must.

Advocates on both sides of the aisle argue that legislation similar to Ronald Reagans immigration reform and control act of 1986 which temporarily slowed illegal immigration through the creation of an easier path to legal immigration should serve as a model for new legislation.

There arent many feasible solutions that do not involve naturalizing large swaths of illegal immigrants. But doing so without reforming the larger legal framework that led to millions of illegal entrants breaking into the country would only encourage further illegal immigration.

The Republican party a group one might expect to have advanced meaningful immigration reform given their rhetoric hasnt made major legislative headway on the issue.

Prior to Trumps presidency the GOP was dominated by corporatist neoconservatives, whose donors were the beneficiaries of the cheap labor illegal immigrants provided. Couple this with the fact that Democrat strategists still operating under the impression that Latin American people would vote blue, assumed that the naturalization of illegal immigrants would be a political boon for their party.

It soon became apparent why neither party was motivated to change the status quo.

Trumps populist success blew up both partys assumptions. His calls to restrict immigration legal and illegal were born of an economic-nationalist desire to decrease competition within the American labor force and subsequently drive up wages. This was a message that both the Republican base and Latin Americans supported in unexpected numbers.

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This shift left traditional Republican think tanks and policy centers spinning. Should they continue to push neoconservative open-borders solutions favorable to the corporate class? Or should they promote policy that would unequivocally empower law enforcement to dam the flow of illegal immigrants by fundamentally reshaping what is currently a catch and release system?

The failure of GOP leadership to make a meaningful push for reform when it held all three branches of government between Trumps inauguration and the 2018 midterm elections speaks volumes about the partys inability settle on a solution. Also, its hard to gauge where Republican legislators currently stand since they dont have to do the hard work of advancing legislation and can just pile on the current administrations failures.

If Bidens policy pivot successfully smothers the influx of illegal immigration, the issue wont play the outsized role it is poised to play in the 2024 presidential election. Should he fail, candidates in competitive districts across the nation will be forced to defend or reject his handling of the southern border and Trump will undoubtedly redouble his argument to the American people that Bidens failure to secure the southern border contributed to the nationwide spike in violent crime and drug overdoses.

Should comprehensive border reform be addressed legislatively, it will be relatively easy to generate support for nationalization of immigrants who have successfully integrated themselves into American society. A Fox News post 2020 election poll found that 71 percent of Americans support legal status for undocumented immigrants.

A purely economic analysis would suggest that this opinion is well-founded. As Americas geopolitical rivals Russia and China face the serious threat of demographic collapse, America is one of the only developed nations to have a growing population and that is a good thing.

To put it in perspective, economists dont have models which arent predicated on perpetual GDP growth and one of the driving factors of this perpetual growth is perpetual population increase.

China currently sits on the brink of economic disaster largely because it does not have a rising young consumer generation to drive its domestic economy. Immigration prevents the United States from suffering a similar fate given that Americans are currently reproducing well below a replacement birthrate.

Legislation aimed at processing visa applications more rapidly as well as the faster adjudication of backlogged immigration court proceedings would help solve this issue and discourage visa overstays.

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It would be unfortunate if naturalization is not coupled with (an admittedly less politically viable) reassessment of the rights of refugee and asylum seekers, as well as appropriate (and mandatory) penalties for those who attempt to illegally enter the country. The urgent need for this reform was recently demonstrated by an illegal immigrant whod been deported four times already allegedly killing five of his neighbors in Texas.

Once this fundamentally flawed system is reassessed, investments in physical barriers like Trumps wall will truly be worth discussing.

Given the hard realities legislators must stare down to fix this issue and the lack of will to address the issues demonstrated by decades of legislative inaction dont expect much.

The breakdown of the rule of law on Americas southern border benefits nobody gang members and terrorists are free to enter the country with large quantities of narcotics, as well as to engage in widespread human trafficking activities, all of which threaten American citizens.

Undocumented immigrants, the vast majority of whom are good people who aspire to build a better life in America, are victimized by this system too, since there are no guarantees that the cartel affiliated coyotes who control the border crossings on the Mexican side will not kill or rape their clients.

Reagan once said, a nation without borders is no nation at all. That is ironic given his failure (and the failure of all Republicans who came after him) to materially address this issue. Still, Reagan was right.

The U.S. must have a border that effectively prevents violent cartels from superseding the rule of law. FITSNews understands the importance of informed conversations about this complicated issue, and is committed to continued coverage.

We also plan on traveling to the border in the very near future as part of that coverage. Stay tuned

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(Via: Coleman Rojhan)

Dylan Nolan is the director of special projects at FITSNews. He graduated from the Darla Moore school of business in 2021 with an accounting degree. Dylan primarily covers education when he isnt producing video content. Got a tip or story idea for Dylan? Email him here. You can also engage him socially @DNolan2000.

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Border Battle: Record Illegal Immigration Greeted By Unexpected ... - FITSNews

KUALA LUMPUR: A woman suspected to have raked in millions by offering illegal immigration services to foreigners and employers was arrested at a condominium in Taman Melati Utama in Setapak here.

Kuala Lumpur Immigration director Syamsul Badrin Mohshin said the 48-year-old suspects year-old operation was busted when they raided the house at 11am Wednesday (May 17) in Ops Serkap.

He said she charged her "clients RM2,500 each for Labour Recalibration (RTK) registrations and RM8,000 for Temporary Work Visit Pass (PLKS) renewals although the department had never appointed any party to do such work.

"We conducted intelligence and surveillance operations for a month after an employer made a report on the activities of the woman.

"Our investigation found that she conducted her scheme with the help of a friend believed to be a Bangladeshi and collected millions from her customers, he told a press conference at the Home Ministry here today (May 18).

He said three foreign men, aged 42 to 48, were also arrested during the raid.

"We seized, among other things, 314 Bangladeshi passports, a computer, mobile phones, 17 CIDB cards and RM61,550 in cash, he said.

Syamsul Badrin said his officers also raided the womans office in Taman Sri Rampai, Setapak at about 12.20pm on the day of her arrest.

They seized 53 Bangladeshi passports, 198 CIDB cards, seven payment record books, eight company files and three company licences from the office.

He said the woman and the three men were detained for investigations under the Passport Act 1959/63. - Bernama

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Woman nabbed in Setapak after making millions as illegal ... - The Star Online

An 8-year-old girl who died while in U.S. border custody on Wednesday had been detained for a week more than twice the amount of time the government generally aims to hold migrants, particularly children, according to two people familiar with the situation.

The girl and her family were being held in a Customs and Border Protection facility in Harlingen, Texas, where they were waiting to be deported on a flight to Honduras. The family was among thousands of migrants who crossed the countrys southern border ahead of the expiration of a pandemic-era immigration rule that the authorities had feared would lead to a large influx of migrants and overcrowding at border holding facilities.

The people familiar with the situation spoke on the condition of anonymity because the childs death is under internal investigation.

Hondurass foreign ministry identified the girl as Anadith Danay Reyes lvarez, a Panamanian national known to her family as Ana, who was born with a heart condition. Her parents, who are Honduran, traveled to the United States so that their daughter could have a better life, said Antonio Garca, the countrys foreign vice minister.

Customs and Border Protection officials said on Wednesday that emergency medical services had transported the girl to a hospital, where she died. Biden administration officials did not respond to additional questions about the circumstances surrounding the childs death, citing the internal review. A border official in Texas who was not authorized to speak publicly said that Ana had a serious medical conditionof which officials had not immediately been aware.

Though all migrants are given health screenings when taken into federal custody, the death of a child is at the heart of concerns about the governments policy of detaining children for any period of time and particularly in crowded settings. While there is no law or official guidance about how long undocumented migrants are to be detained while in border custody, the government typically aims for about three days.

In the past week the authorities have struggled with overcrowding at border facilities, which quickly exceeded capacity after a spike in illegal migration ahead of last weeks lifting of the pandemic-era public health rule, known as Title 42.

That policy had allowedofficialstoexpelsome migrantsswiftly, instead of holding them in custody. Sinceitsexpiration, officials have reverted to policies that involve longer processing times for migrants.

On May 17, the day Ana died, migrants were being held for an average of four and a half days, according to internal data obtained by The New York Times, compared to an average of a little under three days on May 10.

The bottom line is you need to get families out of C.B.P. custody because the conditions generally are substandard and not appropriate for kids to be held in, said Wendy Young, the president of the advocacy group Kids in Need of Defense. Scientific studies have concluded that detaining children, even if they are with their parents, can cause developmental and mental health issues.

Brandon Judd, the leader of the Border Patrol labor union, said agents have raised concerns about the crowded detention centers.

Theres a reason that you have a certain capacity, and thats for the safety of everybody, Mr. Judd said. When you exceed that capacity, then safety levels are going to go way down.

In 2018 and 2019, when the numbers of migrant crossings reached high levels,the Trump administration came under intense criticism for the death of minors in Customs and Border Protectiondetention.

In an interview with Univision on May 18, Lorna Santos, Anas aunt, said that the childs mother told officials at the Customs and Border Protectionfacility that Ana was having trouble breathing, but that a medical staff member dismissed her concerns.Ms. Santos said the girls mother told her that Ana later faintedand was taken to a hospital, where she died in the waiting room.

Wilson Paz, the director of Hondurass migrant protection service, said Anas father told Honduran authorities that she had undergone surgery in Panama three years ago to address a membrane blocking blood from reaching her heart. Mr. Paz said she was tested for Covid-19 when she went to the United States, and she was diagnosed with the flu.

The Biden administration has been managing a historic spike in illegal migration for the past two years, as people flee authoritarian states, violence and extreme poverty.

Though the administration added more staff to help process migrants into the country and increased Customs and Border Protections capacity to hold migrantsbefore Title 42 expired, it was not enough to stave off the backups that led to overcrowding last week.

In the week since the policy ended, however, the number of illegal crossings have been down significantly, with an average of 3,000 to 4,000 apprehensions a day, the Homeland Security Department said, compared to the nearly 10,000 apprehended a day around the time that Ana and her family crossed. The majority of the migrants have been from Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. Since May 12, more than 11,000 migrants have been expelled to Mexico or repatriated, the department said in a statement on Friday.

On May 10, ngel Eduardo Maradiaga Espinoza, a 17-year-old Honduran boy, died while he was in a Florida shelter overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency charged with overseeing the care of migrant children who cross into the United States without a parent or guardian. The boys mother said he was epileptic but had not been sick when he traveled to the United States.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed reporting from Washington.

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8-Year-Old Migrant Died After a Week in U.S. Detention - The New York Times

Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida continues to make headlines for staking out controversial positions at the heart of the culture wars. Most recently, he issued a ban on "critical race theory" and "equity, diversity, and inclusion" in Florida's primary and secondary education systems, defunding DEI in all of Florida's public schools.

He's on to something. Today's DEI is a big grift that grafts advocacy for sexual preferences and illegal immigrants onto the outstanding obligations due to the descendants of U.S. slaves. Under the guise of representing Black Americans, DEI subordinates our interests to the aims of new, sometimes manufactured victim groups.

It's time to say that DEI must dieand the Black mis-leadership that depends upon it can go down with it.

Everybody knows that DEI gets its moral authority from the participation of Black leaders who are funded by white liberalsa group of people who found a way to make themselves "minorities" based on lifestyle choices. This conflict of interest ensures Black political leaders are unable to do their actual job of delivering for Black Americansbecause they are too afraid to lose sponsorship from white DEI powerbrokers.

Where is this happening, you ask? Watch how New York City Mayor Eric Adams, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, and newly elected Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have served as cheerleaders for President Biden's border crisis, even as resources are diverted from their Black constituents.

We see more Black mis-leadership in how the Congressional Black Caucus wasted four years disrespecting President Donald Trump instead of working with the leader of the free world to deliver on the economic and political interests of Black Americans. The CBC is a cohort of Black officials charged with using their tenure in Congress to represent and fulfill Black Americans' political interests, though it's probably hard to tell, considering they consistently advocate for illegal aliens and everything else.

This same mission drift is happening in historical Black organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Legacy organizations have sold out to the immigration lobby and one-sided Pan-Africanism instead of securing the domestic interests of the descendants of U.S. slaves. Thus, the president of the NAACP advocated for descendants of U.S. slaves to forgive African slave traders and serve as an economic base for Africa rather than advising Black Americans to lean into our Americanness.

What kind of leadership tells Black Americans to build a third-world continent rather than reclaim our protected class status in the first-world country where we have multiple generations of sweat and blood equity?

But it's classic misleader speak to tell Black Americans to feel more kinship with random "brown" people instead of holding our country and new arrivals accountable to our human rights legacy and socioeconomic agenda.

It's an open secret that singing in the DEI choir and seeing your destiny as part of the "Black-and-brown coalition" helps foreigners legitimize their political aimsbut never ours.

It's time to acknowledge that the DEI industry is selling us out to an intersectional coalition that demands Black elected officials kiss the ring of migrants, the LGBTQIA+, and various other "people of color" while giving nothing in return for our community. For us to get anything as Black Americans, we have to get our political agenda approved by illegal aliens, sexual minorities, and new Americans.

Make that make sense! Such submissiveness is beneath the dignity of the legacy of our ancestors.

Meanwhile, leftists of all shades fail to condemn their own complicity in Black American servility. And why would they? It's been working in their favor to promise us nothing and deliver even less.

The weakened political position of Black Americans is the fault of Black leaders who worship "diversity" interests first and foremost. For example, of the 56 members of the Congressional Black Caucus, two dozen represent predominately Black districts, but every single Black House member voted against H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, which passed the House along party lines. Those elected officials must break from the grips of white-led DEI and the global citizenship narrative of Black leftists.

It's time to take over predominately Black districts by electing pro-Black and America First candidatesin the vein of Republican Thaddeus Stevens and Democrat Barbara Jordan.

And rather than turning the other cheek, Black Americans need to accept that it is never too soon to recall a mayor or governor who isn't useful to us.

Today's diversity, equity and inclusion is not a religion Black Americans should practice. The current DEI agenda amounts to replacement, more divestment, and political underminingall done in the guise of good vibes.

It's time Black Americans call the nation back into fulfilling the original intent of the Civil Rights Movement. Our moral authority and our human rights legacy must be leveraged toward our self-interests.

Don't let anyone convince you otherwise.

Pamela Denise Long is CEO of Youthcentrix Therapy Services, a business focused on helping organizations implement trauma-informed practices and diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism (DEIA) at the systems level. Connect with Ms. Long online at http://www.youthcentrix.com or @PDeniseLong on social media.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.

The rest is here:
Black Leaders Have Sold Out Our Community to the Immigration Lobby | Opinion - Newsweek