Harris Would Proudly Continue Unvetted Immigration
By Joe Guzzardi
When U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) released to media outlets Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s shocking statistics about convicted illegal alien criminals that include murderers and rapists set free into the interior, the damning data’s publication coincided exactly with Vice-President Kamala Harris’ September 27 photo-op at the border. The two-term representative received the information from ICE Deputy Director Patrick Lechleitner who was responding to a letter Gonzales sent to President Joe Biden and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that expressed his concern about at-risk Americans who live in sanctuary cites. Gonzales also requested detailed information about the illegal immigrants on ICE’s docket to learn how many criminals are being released into the nation’s communities. After reading the statistics that Lechleitner included in his reply, Gonzales said that ICE’s findings are “beyond disturbing” and he vowed to fund the agency with sufficient resources to remove criminal illegal immigrants. Gonzales also demanded that Biden and Harris clean up “the mess their failed policies have created.”
“Beyond disturbing” is the year’s greatest understatement. As of July 21, 2024, there were 662,566 illegal aliens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket including 13,099 criminally convicted murders. Gonzales, a U.S. Navy veteran, and Master Chief who was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, represents Texas’ 23rd district which includes more than eight hundred miles along the U.S./Mexico border. Gonzales’ congressional voting record reflects solid grades on legislation that strengthens border security and interior immigration law enforcement. Gonzales recently secured over $12 million in federal grant funding through Operation Stonegarden for 17 Texas counties and two American Indian tribes. Operation Stonegarden, Gonzales explained, helps front line Border Patrol agents curtail cartel activity and related border security efforts.
Meanwhile down in Douglas County, Arizona, just as Gonzales released the gruesome ICE statistics, Harris connected with border patrol agents and local law enforcement officials. Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels told reporters that his frustration has mounted steadily during the three and a half years since Harris’ border czar appointment. Over the last 31 months, Dannels’ office jailed 3,762 illegal immigrants for border-related crimes that cost his county $12.5 million. Dannels made multiple efforts to meet with Biden and Harris, but they always rebuffed him.
Dannels has seen heat-related desert deaths and other tragedies, but the White House and Congress has “intellectually turned [their] backs on us. That’s frustrating to me.” Harris, for the umpteenth time, chided her opponent Donald Trump for allegedly scotching the so-called bipartisan border bill that President Joe Biden and other prominent Democrats have falsely claimed would solve the border crisis. Arizona, the only battleground state that borders Mexico, contended with a record influx of asylum seekers last year. Harris pledged to, if elected, revive the bipartisan border bill “and proudly sign it into law.” On multiple other occasions and on her website, Harris has pledged to offer “a pathway to citizenship” to millions of illegal aliens, an amnesty that Americans have, for decades, rejected.
Voters beware! The failed bipartisan bill that Harris praises would have, among its other flaws, codified continued mass immigration and done nothing to end parole abuse or scrap the illegal CBP-One app. The bill’s final version only required the Department of Homeland Security to tighten the processing and releasing of border crossers when a staggering 5,000 illegal aliens per day, averaged over 7 days, are encountered. The White House and DHS know how unpopular CBP-One is so they paired up to give concerned voters a head-fake. Last week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that it would not allow 500,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans who arrived on CBP-One to extend their two-year parole period, a benefit previously available to them. Skeptics pointed out that not only would the illegal aliens likely remain, but they could enroll in other programs that protect them from deportation like Temporary Protected Status. Since the four countries are TPS-approved, when their parole period expires, if it ever does, getting added to TPS would be just a matter of bureaucratic paperwork. CBP-One is the gift to illegal aliens that keeps on giving. As of October 2023, 1.6 million migrants were awaiting approval to fly into the U.S. via the fraud-ridden parole program. Last month, DHS briefly suspended parole when an internal investigation found that thousands of illegal aliens’ sponsors listed fake social security numbers or phone numbers and used the same physical address on thousands of parole applications.
Whatever may happen administratively, one thing is certain. ICE, hamstrung under the Biden/Harris administration, will deport few if any illegal aliens. Biden and Harris’ priority is the exact opposite: don’t deport; import.
Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org
Harris Would Proudly Continue Unvetted Immigration
