For someone way past middle age, I have the advantage, as an adult, of perspective when it comes to comparing the overall performance of the last twelve presidents, JFK through Biden. I cannot recall anything as egregious, nonsensical, misleading, premeditated and unlawful(??) as what is happening since 20 January, 2021 on our southern border.
National security begins with border security. National security is enhanced by laws, policy, intent, and border security forces that are equal to the task. National security, and by extension, the safety of Americans is every president’s number one priority; or at least it has been until now.
President Trump campaigned on bringing order to the southern border. Through tireless efforts, doing battle with the Congress and the courts, he accomplished what he promised he would do.
On day-one President Biden opened the border with a dramatic statement by freezing all funds for border wall construction and terminating Trump’s national emergency declaration along the border. During the first four months in office, that decision accomplished two things; it cost taxpayers about $2 billion dollars and, most importantly, it sent a signal that the border is open.
For months, we have watched daily videos of illegal immigrant masses crossing the Rio Grande River, being met by Border Control agents, processed and transported to holding areas. To add insult to injury, all the while President Biden and his disciples are telling the American people, “The border is closed.” It goes beyond misrepresentation; it is an outright lie and everyone knows it is a lie.
But the numbers don’t lie. FY 21 ended with 1,734,686 illegal immigrant encounters, the highest total ever recorded in one year. Additionally, 21% were aliens who had been encountered before. Why not try again, this time the border is “open.”
If that is not bad enough, it is the other number that is exponentially more serious; that is, Border Patrol leaders estimate that perhaps hundreds of thousands entered and were not apprehended. Because the Border Patrol agents are routinely overwhelmed with masses of families and unaccompanied children voluntarily reporting to agents at regularly used crossing areas, literally hundreds of miles of border are not patrolled at all. In those areas the illegals entering are the criminals, MS13 gang members, terrorists and drug and human traffickers. They are a direct threat to our national security and safety of U.S. citizens.
The president and all of his border administrators understand all of this yet continue to insult our intelligence by insisting the situation is not a crisis and the border is not open.
But the situation gets worse by the day. We are battling a pandemic. An estimated 20-25% of the aliens are ill when they arrive which for many means Covid positive. Now it gets worse. Where are those 1.7 million that we know about? They have been relocated around the country on busses and planes. These people have not been tested or vaccinated for Covid. It is likely that many of those buses and planes were hauling a Covid super-spreader. Is anyone getting a sense of the hypocrisy relative to Biden’s Covid policies that are being pressed on citizens?
While vigorously supported by his Executive Branch principals and congressional Democrat leaders, why is our president allowing open borders? He and his minions refuse to answer that question and seem to believe we are all too stupid to figure it out. The reason is simple, votes; tens of millions of potential democrat voters. The second chapter to this insanity is currently contained in the Build Back Better legislation which contains a provision for amnesty for at least 7 million illegals. And of course, we all know that if that becomes reality it will establish a powerful precedent for follow-on amnesty programs.
Back to the title, IS PRESIDENT BIDEN GUILTY OF AIDING AND ABETTING? Noun: The act of helping, encouraging, or supporting someone in the commission of a crime. Verb: To actively encourage, to assist, or to support the commission of a criminal act. Seems pretty clear to me since every illegal immigrant is guilty of committing a federal offense.
Let’s take the allegations of aiding and abetting a step further with this question; IS THE PRESIDENT ALSO GUILTY OF VIOLATING HIS OATH OF OFFICE?
The presidential-mandated oath of office is found in Article II of the Constitution. It contains 35 words and begins as follows: “I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…” That first sentence, in and of itself, is a commitment to all Americans that the president will take all necessary steps to keep foreign enemies out of our country.
We know, from data released by the Border Patrol, that they continue to apprehend illegals who are on our Terrorist Watch List. That list has existed since the attack on the United States, September 11, 2001, as we have been actively engaged in a global war on terrorism to keep our county safe. So, when President Biden willfully opens the borders and takes proactive steps to remove actions that were in place to inhibit illegal entry, isn’t he in violation of his oath of office to, “defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic?” Based on recent history, isn’t it crystal clear that if President Trump had perpetrated this dastardly charade he would have been impeached, convicted and be gone in his first six months?
Unintended consequences that the President and Vice President avoid talking about:
- Too many of these aliens are not here for the “American dream”, they are here to partake of the American welfare system and it’s costing the taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars for decades to come.
- Drugs of all kinds are pouring across the border in tonnages never before experienced. For example, two pounds of fentanyl has the potential to kill 500,000 people; 130 pounds could kill everyone in the United States. By April, 2021 after Biden opened the border, 6,494 pounds of fentanyl were seized at the border, a 233% increase from the same period in 2020. The question is, how many tons of drugs came in undetected? Is anyone surprised that drug overdose deaths in America in 2021 topped 100,000 for the first time? Anyone in the Biden administration being held accountable?
- How do Americans feel about what is happening every day on our southern border? Polling data tells us that only 25% of Americans approve of Bidens border policies; translation, tens of millions of democrats and independents join with republicans in disapproval. What we heard on 20 January is that, “I will be there for all the people”, not just 25%. The reality is to the contrary.
- Parole Authority, a form of legal status given to illegal immigrants as they enter the U.S., provides them the ability to apply for work permits. Federal law says parole authority is to be used on a case-by-case basis for “urgent humanitarian purposes” and “significant public benefit.” A recently retired head of the Border Patrol said he would normally provide 5 or 10 parole authority documents per year. The Biden administration is issuing them by the tens of thousands. Urgent purposes? Are they breaking another federal law?
- The Cartel is one of the biggest crime organizations in the world. The cartel is one of the biggest drug manufactures in the world. Cartels control the border. They determine who, what, when, where and how much it will cost to cross the border. Costs range from $1300 to $10,000 depending on the migrants’ nationality. Illegal immigration has become a major revenue stream for the cartels. Have you heard President Biden address this cartel issue? Neither have I. It is just another item in his too-hard box.
- There is one more important but unintended consequence of this whole border mess. We now have confirmation that Vice President Harris is pretty much a zero when it comes to planning, commitment, leadership, honesty and communications and that President Biden appears to be OK with that outcome. We should be worried about what that portends for the future of this administration and our country
How can this administration get away with all of these lies, the deceit and deception? One answer has to do with the fourth estate. The term “fourth estate” is often attributed to British politician Edmund Burke who observed, “There were three Estates in Parliament, but in the Reporters’ Gallery yonder, there sat a fourth Estate more important far than them all.”
In the United States, the term fourth estate has been used to place the press alongside the three branches of government: legislative, executive and judicial. The fourth estate refers to the watchdog role of the press, one that is important to a functioning democracy.
Watchdog, a proper graphic term. Unfortunately, its importance to the proper functioning of our democracy has diminished to the point that it is now, performing a divisive disservice to the every-day functioning of our government.
The journalists in the U.S. are not stupid, blind or unaware of what is happening on our southern border. But their leaders in the main-stream media, for the most part, have become so politicized they have completely lost the capability to perform the once-vaunted fourth estate role. Honesty, integrity, just doing the right thing are gone from reporting. We the people are being lied to and misinformed on a daily basis.
But the most insidious power the media has is the power to ignore. And that is what is happening today with respect to the illegal immigration problems. With the exception of a few news papers and TV news sources, the main-street media goes out of its way every day to provide cover for the Biden administration, across the board democrat leadership and the democrat/liberal establishment.
But the problem goes much deeper. With the media providing cover for bad decisions, bad policy and lackluster leadership, the administration, the Congress, the bureaucracy feels safe operating with accountability. Without accountability an organization and all it/they control will begin to lose its foundation, its honesty, its integrity, its vitality and spirit. Morale goes down the crapper.
Conclusions:
- President Biden is culpable for what is happening and what is not happening at the border.
- For the Biden/Harris administration to not recognize the humanitarian crisis that has existed during his months in office is reprehensible; the rape, crime, unsanitary conditions and suffering during the long journey. Consider the trauma associated with an estimated 180,000 unaccompanied children, many of them found alone and only 5 or 6 years old. Where is the compassion? This is not who we are as a compassionate and benevolent nation.
- In our daily lives we are rarely able to have all we want, when we want it and that leads to prioritization. With respect to the illegal immigration issue, the Biden administration has prioritized and placed an atmosphere of control over what is best for we the people and our great nation. They are not stupid and during quiet, reflective moments most of them perhaps see and understand that they are not right, not supporting us, not properly providing for our security. But they are driven by a philosophic underpinning of control and power at any cost. Control the people, control the government, control future power.
- At least for the present, President Biden will not be held accountable for aiding and abetting criminal activity on our southern border or for violating his oath of office.
Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, a columnist for THE PILOT, a national award-winning local newspaper in Southern Pines, NC and the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com.