The open-border policies of the Biden administration are undermining national sovereignty and the rule of law.
Last year, a record 2.4 million entered the country illegally. In the final year of the Trump administration, this number had dropped all the way to 125,000. But once Biden was inaugurated, the word got out: America was no longer enforcing its borders.
In fact, President Joe Biden tried to dismantle the single most effective obstacle to illegal immigration: the “remain in Mexico” policy. By detaining people in Mexico until their case was heard, we had ended “catch and release,” in which illegal immigrants were released into the countryside and, in the vast majority of cases, failed to show up for a hearing on their immigration status. Fortunately, a federal judge reinstated the “remain In Mexico” policy despite Biden’s insistence on ending the practice.
America is a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws. And we must enforce the law. There’s a right way to enter this country, through our process of legal immigration that hundreds of thousands of people patiently navigate each year. By turning a blind eye to illegal immigration, we undermine that system of legal immigration and create perverse incentives for people to sneak into the country instead of following our legal processes.
We must remove incentives for people to come to the United States illegally, starting with ending birthright citizenship. There is simply no logical reading of the Constitution that demonstrates the founders intended for people from foreign countries to enter our country illegally and give birth to children so that those children could automatically become U.S. citizens. Birthright citizenship should be reserved for the children of U.S. citizens.
For that reason, I support a constitutional amendment to reserve birthright citizenship for those born to people in America legally, or for the children of U.S. citizens living abroad. But we must end this incentive for people to come to our country illegally simply to have children, which sets in motion the nonsensical process of chain migration, regardless of merit.
America is a generous nation. But we have plenty of citizens hurting, and for whom the generosity of taxpayers should be reserved. In these difficult times, the Biden administration is not even capable of delivering formula to newborn babies. It can’t resolve a supply chain crisis that prevents the purchase of everyday goods, and even essential goods. The twin challenge of inflation and rising fuel prices is draining families of savings and plunging them into debt. America must solve these challenges for its own citizens, and not drain limited resources to educate, house, and provide free healthcare to people who broke the law to enter our country.
A nation is not a nation if it doesn’t enforce its sovereign borders. We need to secure the border by finishing the Trump wall, sending illegal immigrants home, and removing all incentives for them to cross our borders illegally.
T.W. Shannon is former speaker of the Oklahoma state House and a candidate for U.S. Senate.
