The Biden administration, it seems, has restarted construction of the border wall President Biden maintains doesn’t work. Better late than never. But chances are the crisis at the Southern Border is already worse than it appears.
Giving illegal border crossers all manner of perks, travel fare and access to asylum lawyers has made the public rightfully angry, and even “sanctuary city” New York Mayor Eric Adams declared that the now-regular stream of migrants into Gotham “will ruin the City!”
Then there are the consequences to law and order. Violent crime rates are up, and the nightly news reflects it. Less visible are the ripple effects from other criminal enterprises. There’s a reason the indy film The Sound of Freedom struck a chord. Human trafficking is slowly gaining American’s attention, and it’s too close to home for most Americans’ peace of mind.
The opioid epidemic is spiraling out of control, with annual overdose deaths, after a slight decline from 2017 through 2019, increasing dramatically in the last several years. Part of the reason is that the opportunities for smuggling in illegal contraband have increased.
It goes beyond narcotics. Drug cartels know the U.S. government has been intent on not enforcing the laws at our southern border. They’ve collaborated with hostile actors, including the Communist Chinese government and the companies it controls to further take advantage. Notably, illicit tobacco and vaping products appear to have become a profit center for the burgeoning Chinese-drug cartel alliance. Teenage vaping and flavored tobacco products have become a major concern for federal regulators, but experts believe most vaping products being sold are illegal and that 90 percent of the vaping products originate in China. Predictably, federal policymakers have reacted by proposing more prohibitions on legal products – those mostly used by adults and lifetime smokers to transition away from cigarettes – rather than addressing the source of the problem. The flood of illegal products through our open border is a damning illustration of the dangers that come from a dysfunctional government.
What other conclusion can we reach when Federal tobacco regulators’ first instinct is to cite the robust cartel-supported black market in vaping products aimed at kids to further their prohibitionist tobacco agenda? They are applauded by special interest groups who fund splashy ad campaigns highlighting teen vaping use as the basis for their actions. And, frankly, if the regulatory abolitionists manage to outlaw products used by adults, doesn’t that offer the Chinese-drug cartel alliance a whole new product line to bolster the illicit trade targeted at kids?
These counter-intuitive (counter-common sense) policies raise the question: are there senior government officials who see the lawlessness open border chaos border as a feature, not a bug? Claire Trickler-McNulty, the Biden Administration’s Assistant Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, appears set on turning law enforcement agencies into social services organizations. Before joining the Biden Administration, she worked for an organization that advocated for the abolition of the agency she now helps lead – just like those who want to defund the police. There’s no shortage of prospective “clients” seeking federal assistance. Her business is booming.
Trickler-McNulty, incidentally, is a former employee of the George Soros-funded Kids in Need of Defense, which has a $13 million contract from the Biden administration to provide just the kind of social work she advocates.
The Biden administration is sheepishly resuming border wall construction. It’s a tacit admission that American families and businesses are being harmed by open border policies. Tragically, state budgets, neighborhood safety, and our children’s futures have already been endangered to the benefit of drug cartels and foreign adversaries. It’s long past time the administration acknowledges it. But it’s hard not to conclude that it’s too little, too late.
