Fareed Zakaria, one of the scions of DC punditry, has finally faced the facts that current Biden policies on immigration are completely wrong. More remarkably, he has taken that indubitable reality to its logical conclusion–Zakaria calls for closing the border to asylum applicants while the system attempts to absorb the millions already in the pipeline.
Milton Friedman once wrote “Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.” While evidence of this truism abounds, one of the greatest examples is Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The Biden Administration just announced a massive expansion of TPS for Venezuela that the government estimates extends protection from removal and employment authorization documents (EADs) to 472,000 additional aliens present in the country.
When it comes to debates over immigration, one of the common errors is distinguishing between aliens who enter legally as opposed to illegally. Often, we are told that legal immigration is beneficial, but illegal immigration is harmful. A recent Washington Times article highlights an extreme example of this by calling for admission of a million H-1B aliens while deporting the illegal alien population.
What is, and where is, the American Dream for you?
Is it Rural? Urban? Suburban? I offer that it doesn't matter. "Better, richer, and happier" can happen in all three so long as we preserve our ability to choose which lifestyle we want. Many economic and social factors can affect our lifestyle choices. But how often does one consider the additional effects of immigration-driven population growth on limiting choice?
A better system, in accordance with the concept of "self-control," would honor our immigration tradition and preserve Americans' - all Americans' - abilities to reach those serene places our nation has been blessed with.
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) has a new report examining the free-fall in Department of Labor (DOL) investigations into farmworker abuse, which dropped to a record low of 879. 879 closed cases when hundreds of thousands of H-2A employees are working every year. This continues the trend of “see no evil, hear no evil” of the Trump Administration, when only 1,036 cases were closed annually.
Enrique Balcazar, 37, and Elizabeth Balcazar, 21, operators of Balcazar Nature Harvesting, LLC (BNH), were sentenced in Federal court for using the H-2A agricultural visa program to import forced labor. Enrique received 40 months in prison along with fines, and his daughter received time served and fines. BNH was fined approximately $508,000 in restitution to 55 H-2A employees.
The rise in unemployment always seems to surprise the "experts," most of who also call for immigration increases to grow the labor force. Maybe they haven't thought these things through.
Andrea Flores, an immigration policy advisor under both Presidents Obama and Biden, is going to tell us how to fix the immigration system. Apparently, letting everyone enter the country with employment authorization is the correct answer to driving down the illegal entries.
Secretary Mayorkas of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says the border is secure and that we have operational control. President Biden has also said the border is secure repeatedly, when he has not dismissed the border crisis as "seasonal." However, a growing list of states, cities, and counties across the country are declaring states of emergency to deal with the fall out from the Biden/Mayorkas "secure” border. The latest state to declare an emergency is Massachusetts.