American Sovereignty at Stake in Budget Deal Showdown Over Border Funding
Jarrett Stepman /
Is the United States still a sovereign country, or not?
That question simply can’t be ignored in the congressional budget fight now coming to a head. A short-term budget compromise isn’t going to fix this long-term issue as our border remains a sieve.
While Democrats and the legacy media continue to do their best to diminish or make excuses for the appalling and acute border crisis, it’s clear that Americans are deeply concerned. For good reason.
“Border Patrol agents apprehended roughly 140,000 migrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without authorization during the first 20 days of September, an average of about 6,900 each day, according to the internal agency data,” CBS News reported on Sept. 21. “That represents a 60% increase from the daily average of 4,300 in July.”
That came just shortly after countless other media outlets and liberal media commentators declared the border problem over. Since Joe Biden became president, we’ve seen border-crossing record after record broken and obliterated. After an extremely brief dip, the numbers are back through the roof.
Biden’s policies are “working,” but only if one assumes that the administration wants millions of illegal immigrants to flood our country.
Every state is a border state now. The Biden administration has done what it can to ensure that Texas and Arizona drown, but the reality is that if you flood the country with millions of illegal immigrants every year the problem will eventually swamp the entire country.
Busing illegal immigrants to blue “sanctuary cities” just accelerated the phenomenon.
For good reason, some House Republicans have been insistent that any congressional budget deal must include more money to fund border security.
“From the beginning of this process, I’ve vowed to defend the 750,000 Texans I represent by refusing to fund a [Department of Homeland Security] that is not doing its job to secure the border. Why would we sign another check to DHS to continue to not do its job?” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, Fox News reported.
Absolutely.
“If the Senate and the president continue open-border policies, then the House will not move a DHS appropriations bill,” he continued. “Texans are done. We are over it. No matter what happens before this is all over, border security needs to get done, period, full stop. No security, no funding.”
Unfortunately, the DHS funding proposed by the Biden administration has little to do with border security and a lot to do with ensuring that illegal immigrants continue to flow freely into this country.
That’s part of what’s causing such an impasse in budget negotiations. House Republicans insist on ramping up spending on actual border security. Biden has threatened to veto any such legislation, as he has consistently throughout his presidency.
A policy brief issued by The Heritage Foundation in August explained that Biden’s supplemental border funding is nothing more than a “cynical ploy to deceive Americans that the Administration cares about national security, when, in fact, it is ramping up processing, housing, and social services for an endless flow of illegal aliens.” (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)
Biden and his fellow Democrats want to tie disaster relief and border funding to Ukraine war spending.
And a quick look at what the Biden administration actually wants to do with its “Border Management Funding” request shows where its priorities are. It includes funneling money to the Southwest Border Contingency Fund.
“This fund would enable DHS to respond more effectively to changing conditions on the Southwest border and fulfill its critical and complementary missions of securing the border, performing efficient and effective screening and processing, and meeting the nation’s humanitarian obligations,” according to a White House statement.
The $4 billion that Biden & Co. want to spend would be distributed to nongovernmental organizations committed to bringing in as many illegal immigrants as possible. They literally want to fund more illegal immigration.
Also, the contingency fund would essentially use the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide services to illegal immigrants rather than to aid Americans affected by natural disasters.
The Biden administration denounced a House proposal to eliminate the Shelter and Services Program, which it defines as “a priority grant program for DHS that provides temporary food, shelter, and other services to state and local entities and nongovernmental organizations that provide support to migrants who are released from DHS custody.”
Again, it’s clear that the administration’s priorities are in funding more illegal immigration, not border enforcement.
It’s “America last,” it seems.
The federal government’s utter unwillingness to enforce our border and protect our citizens from both the chaos of mass illegal immigration and the poison of illicit fentanyl demonstrates ineptitude to the world.
Why would China or any other rival nation take us seriously when our government proves incapable or unwilling to maintain the most fundamental notions of sovereignty?
Weakness breeds contempt on the international stage.
The Biden administration has demonstrated through both rhetoric and action that it’s entirely unwilling to defend our border.
The question now is whether Congress will hold the executive branch accountable and insist that it uphold its basic constitutional duties.
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