Democratic Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell spoke with NBC Host Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press” about the immigration situation in the US. Specifically since President Biden has been in office. In an interesting turn of events, she made it magnificently clear that she doesn’t support the way the border had been handled in years, either.
“The border’s been broken. It was broken under Donald Trump as well. Our immigration reform, we have needed comprehensive immigration reform for decades…Let me also say. You’ve got small businesses clamoring for people. We’ve got caregiving, which is in desperate shape, and we need to bring some of these people, need to be immigrants, but we don’t want illegals. We don’t want other people coming in. We don’t want drugs coming across our border.”
In a short time, she unpacked a variety of issues.
First off, she’s like a broken clock twice a day; she’s right. Our border has been broken for years now. That all started following 9/11. Looking to lock down the borders to prevent terrorists from having easy access to the US, passport rules were implemented for air travel in or out of the country in 2007. In January 2008, the same was extended for ground travel.
It was this step that suddenly formed such a problem at the border. Before, you could come back and forth as a US or Canadian citizen, but Mexicans needed visas since 1929 to enter the US. A simple solution to go along with Henry Anslinger’s angle against Mexicans, blacks, and marijuana, he wanted to ensure the drug was gone, and we see how that looks just over 90 years later.
With Biden and other officials allowing illegals to cross into the US with no documents or passports, just simply proclaiming “asylum” when/if they are caught, they are taken care of as well as the liberals can offer. Unfortunately for them, they are realizing the cost of feeding, housing, and financing these illegals is incredibly steep. Just like those guppies, they grow up quickly, live a lot in a tiny space, and reproduce at an amazing rate.
Being born here, they are now commonly referred to as “anchor babies.” While a quest for asylum and a payment or three to the cartels gets them here, that baby keeps them in the US. It won’t matter who the father is, US citizen or not.
Oddly, this is where things get the most ridiculous.
Currently, President Biden and other White House officials are in talks with GOP members to get on board with providing more funding for Ukraine, with the border being used as a bargaining chip. This long dream of reform where illegals are sent back without questions about asylum status and dramatically increasing detention and deportation is being dangled as a carrot.
For Dingell, this is a sticking point. As she illustrated, many small businesses have become dependent on illegal or at least foreign-based labor. If they can’t get them employed under the table, they are more than happy to underpay them compared to a citizen. This can mean shortcuts in education, training, and funding where they are crucial. As she pointed out, we need caregivers and people for small business. Immigrants on a work visa or other authorization are fine, just no illegals.
Performing this kind of shift in labor without the illegals filling in spots could mean some big changes for the US, but they are needed. We need to become a nation that pays people livable wages and isn’t dependent on foreign labor. While this might mean eating into profit margins for a bit, if it helps to clean up our borders, the American people will be happier to spend and maybe even drop a little more.
While a large part of the puzzle, the other big note that she clued people in on is that we need to stop the flow of drugs over the border. For decades the US government has had its “war on drugs” but left the providers of that drug alone. All but refusing to work with Mexican authorities (both sides at various points), Federal officials need to find common ground.
Even leaders in Mexico can admit they are overrun by the cartels. Frankly, this is an area in the American alphabet boys and military units could be exceptionally helpful. With no “boots on the ground” mission, we already need to start sealing up the border properly, we might as well fight the root of the problem too.
