Immigration Watch International (2): Sen. Ron Johnson slammed what he described as an 'open border' policy held by the Biden administration during a roundtable he hosted Tuesday in Milwaukee

Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Sen. Ron Johnson slammed what he described as an 'open border' policy held by the Biden administration during a roundtable he hosted Tuesday in Milwaukee

Pointing to record-high border apprehension numbers from the U.S. Border Patrol, Johnson said the number of illegal migrant crossings was a crisis, and a threat to Wisconsin mainly because it increased the likelihood of fentanyl continuing to fuel a rise in overdoses.

Critics have pointed to those very numbers -- a recent average of more than 200,000 monthly border encounters -- as proof it's misleading for Johnson and other Republicans to claim the current administration has an 'open border' policy.

"You know, what terminology you use, you can't debate numbers," Johnson responded when asked about the criticism. "I mean, we had the border largely under control. You'll never have a 100-percent secure border, but we had it largely under control. Now, it's completely out of control."

Johnson seeks to make immigration a key issue in the high-profile Senate race this fall. The campaign for Johnson's Democratic opponent, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, declined to comment for this story.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin pointed to Johnson's vote against a bipartisan immigration bill that passed in 2013 as a sign Johnson was more focused on rhetoric than repairing the country's immigration laws.

“Whether it’s voting against comprehensive immigration reform that would have secured our border and fixed the broken immigration system," party spokesperson Philip Shulman said. "Or protecting big pharmaceutical companies that exploited the opioid epidemic, Ron Johnson isn’t serious about keeping our communities safe.”

Johnson said Congress should not take up immigration reform until the borders are more secure. His stance was echoed on the panel by Mark Morgan, who served as commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection under the Trump administration, and Brandon Judd, president of the Border Patrol agents union.

"Among the many unfortunate things about what's been happening during this administration is you set back the possibility of immigration reform," Johnson said. "Because the first step in doing so is to secure the border, having a border under reasonable control."

Johnson said while he supports the idea of modernizing the nation's immigration laws, and providing lasting protection to residents who were brought into the U.S. illegally at a young age, known as Dreamers, he would not support legislation on those subjects until stricter border security measures were in place.

Judd said the current issue with security was too many of the migrants caught by patrol agents are under court order to release them, as opposed to deporting them.

"Yes, we still have enforcement on the border," he said. "Yes, agents are still on the border, but what you do with the individuals that cross the border, once they're in our custody, that is the open border policies."

"So, when they cross, and they claim asylum just to be released, we're ultimately rewarding them for violating our laws."

Darryl Morin, president of pro-immigrant group Forward Latino, said the number of migrants waiting in squalor on the Mexican side of the border was proof Johnson and the panelists were disingenuous in arguing illegal immigrants have easy access to the U.S.

Morin argued if Johnson was serious about cutting down on illegal immigration, he'd be a bigger proponent of aid and expanded partnerships with Central American countries like El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

"Everyone knows what needs to be done," Morin said. "But there are those, such as the senator, who prefer to have inflammatory rhetoric that maybe helps them at the polls, rather than actually getting to the root of the problem."

https://www.wkow.com/news/sen-johnson-says-immigration-reform-is-off-the-table-until-border-security-improves/article_2bad5e56-1dbb-11ed-bbc8-87f724c7d659.html

***********************************

My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

*******************************

No comments:

Post a Comment

Background

Postings from Brisbane, Australia by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.) -- former member of the Australia-Soviet Friendship Society, former anarcho-capitalist and former member of the British Conservative party.

Why is "La Raza" the one Spanish term that is NEVER translated in the American mass media? Because translating it would make it a lot less respectable. It means "THE RACE" -- The mixed Hispanic "race" of Mexico. Racism is fine South of the Rio Grande only, apparently.

The "line" of this blog is that immigration should be SELECTIVE. That means that:

1). A national government should be in control of it. The U.S. and U.K. governments are not but the Australian government has shown that the government of a prosperous Western country can be. Up until its loss of office in 2007, the conservative Howard government had all but eliminated illegal immigration. The present Leftist government has however restarted the flow of illegals by repealing many of the Howard government regulations.

2). Selectivity should be based on "the content of a man's character, not on the color of his skin", as MLK said. To expand that a little: Immigrants should only be accepted if they as individuals seem likely to make a positive net contribution to the country. Many "refugees" would fail that test: Muslims and Africans particularly. Educational level should usually be a pretty fair proxy for the individual's likely value to the receiving country. There will, of course, be exceptions but it is nonetheless unlikely that a person who has not successfully completed High School will make a net positive contribution to a modern Western society.

3). Immigrants should be neither barred NOR ACCEPTED solely because they are of some particular ethnic origin. Blacks are vastly more likely to be criminal than are whites or Chinese, for instance, but some whites and some Chinese are criminal. It is the criminality that should matter, not the race.

4). The above ideas are not particularly blue-sky. They roughly describe the policies of the country where I live -- Australia. I am critical of Australian policy only insofar as the "refugee" category for admission is concerned. All governments have tended to admit as refugees many undesirables. It seems to me that more should be required of them before refugees are admitted -- for instance a higher level of education or a business background.

5). Perhaps the most amusing assertion in the immigration debate is that high-income countries like the USA and Britain NEED illegal immigrants to do low-paid menial work. "Who will pick our crops?" (etc.) is the cry. How odd it is then that Australians get all the normal services of a modern economy WITHOUT illegal immigrants! Yes: Before the pandemic, you usually COULD buy a lettuce in Australia for a dollar or thereabouts. And Australia IS a major exporter of primary products.

6). I am a libertarian conservative so I reject the "open door" policy favoured by many libertarians and many Leftists. Both those groups tend to have a love of simplistic generalizations that fail to deal with the complexity of the real world. It seems to me that if a person has the right to say whom he/she will have living with him/her in his/her own house, so a nation has the right to admit to living among them only those individuals whom they choose.

I can be reached on jonjayray@hotmail.com -- or leave a comment on any post. Abusive comments will be deleted.

Immigration Watch International (2)

Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Sen. Ron Johnson slammed what he described as an 'open border' policy held by the Biden administration during a roundtable he hosted Tuesday in Milwaukee

No comments:

Post a Comment

Background

Other blogs

Blog Archive

Contributors