Take a look at the southern border since Joe Biden took office: the lawlessness, the human trafficking, the enrichment of the drug cartels, the bodies floating in the Rio Grande. These crisis conditions might not be what Biden had in mind, but they are the direct result of his policies and so far he has shown a callous indifference to human suffering.
After a year-and-a-half of willful negligence on the border, there is no longer any question President Biden and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas are in violation of the oaths they swore to uphold the law. The big question now is what the Republican Party will do about it if it retakes Congress in November's midterm elections.
Conservatives already know what many Republicans will want to do about it: as little as they can get away with. Strongly-worded letters, a few hearings, umbrage-taking on Twitter and Fox News, and of course, lots of fundraising emails. But no real action: no wall, no deportations, no accountability for those in the Biden administration who are making a mockery of the law. This has been the unofficial GOP playbook for decades -- talk the talk about border security and immigration enforcement, but do little to actually fix the problem.
This time, the posturing won't cut it.
First of all, there's the scope of the emergency. In 2021, Border Patrol reported more than 2 million encounters with illegal immigrants -- the most in DHS's history. The pace has only accelerated this year, as March, April and May set consecutive all-time monthly records for apprehensions.
The administration's refusal to secure our borders is stoking America's worsening opioid crisis. Customs and Border Protection seized enough fentanyl along the Southern border last year to kill every American seven times over. Of course, agents only stopped a fraction of the total drug shipments across the border. Anyone who claims that illegal immigration is a victimless crime ought to talk to the parents of the more than 100,000 Americans who died of overdoses last year -- deaths that might have been prevented if drug cartels didn't have almost free run of the border.
Recommended
Second, there's the scope of the betrayal. Democrats are not ignorant of what's going on at the border. They know perfectly well what's happening. They just don't care.
Vice President Kamala Harris was tasked with leading the administration's response, but she dropped it. Biden's Justice Department has quietly dismissed thousands of cases against illegal border-crossers. Meanwhile, federal courts have repeatedly ruled that Biden's derelict immigration policies are unlawful.
If Republicans now campaigning on Biden's border crisis do take over Congress next year, there will be no honeymoon. They will be inheriting an institution that, according to Pew Research, enjoys the trust of just 7% of the American people. We are in the midst of the most precipitous collapse of public confidence in American government ever. And the people are right.
To start earning back the country's trust, a new Republican majority must act swiftly and decisively. Impeachment proceedings for Secretary Mayorkas must begin immediately. The investigation must expose every meeting, every email and text, every snide comment from every political appointee and career bureaucrat. The American people must see the depths of the contempt in which these so-called public servants hold them.
Republicans must impose a regime of scrutiny and transparency on DHS that yields suspensions, firings, and prosecutions for those who break or flout the law. Any office within DHS that resists subpoenas or obstructs the investigation should be defunded and excised.
And of course, they must wield the power of the purse to force the administration to take the crisis seriously. Wall construction must proceed. DHS must detain as many illegal migrants as possible. Simply put, Congress shouldn't approve a single nomination or give the administration a penny until it carries out its constitutional duties.
And if Republican lawmakers fail to hold the Biden administration accountable, the GOP base -- which is justifiably enraged over the status quo -- will surely elect new officials who will.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member