In August 2021, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed legislation and an executive order designed to, in his own words, make Illinois “the most welcoming state in the United States” for immigrants – immigrants, in this case, meaning those who have crossed the southern border either legally or illegally, mainly from Central and South American.
Earlier this week, Pritzker fired off a letter to President Joe Biden decrying the state of immigration policy and calling for greater “intervention at the border” in response to the massive increase in border crossings in the last two years.
Similarly, both the mayor of New York City and the governor of New York have recently had a change of heart, both demanding that the Biden administration “close the border.”
Apparently the administration has begun listening, as yesterday Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, citing an “acute and immediate need,” announced that the department was waiving 26 federal laws to build a border wall in south Texas where illegal migration has surged.
It’s a remarkable development given the heat with which Democratic critics have long criticized the famed “wall” begun by the previous administration. Indeed, then-candidate Biden pronounced that there would “not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration.” His administration has said that the partial construction of a wall under the previous administration was “just one example of the prior administration’s misplaced priorities and failure to manage migration in a safe, orderly and humane way.” The President’s previous disdain for the wall is evidenced by the adminstration actually auctioning off parts of the existing wall at a fraction of its construction cost.
What a difference two years and over 7.5 million border crossings makes.
The chaos at the border has become a national issue due largely to the controversial decision of Texas Governor Greg Abbott to commence shipping busloads of newly-arrived migrants to major Democract-run cities like Chicago and New York, arguing that Texas’ border region was being overwhelmed and that those who championed the administration’s more lenient approach to illegal immigration should share in the consquences. While vehemently criticized by Democrats and many in the media, Abbott’s policy appears to have worked, as self-proclaimed “santuary cities” have been hard pressed to absorb the influx, resulting in Democratic calls for tougher border enforcement.
According to a report from Fox News, Customs and Border Protection sources confirmed that there were more than 260,000 border encounters in September, which would be the highest monthly total on record.
