Biden’s ”Come On In!–We Take All Comers” Immigration Fantasy

Jose Pacheco had waited a long time to go to El Norte.  He had waited long enough and had had enough of rice and beans, tortillas, and platanos. In America he would eat hamburgers, grilled steak, plump chicken, and garden fresh vegetables.

The chickens pecking in the back squawked when a hawk circle overhead and ran for cover under the old driftwood planking he had put up as a roost.  He was sick of chickens, sick of battered pickup trucks, sick of the mosquitos that bred in the puddles of the rutted street in front of his house and under the derelict school bus on blocks, its tires, windows, and motor gone, only a good place to shoot up, smelling of rot, mildew, and vomit.  He was sick of Santa Josefina, ‘Fina’, most of whose residents had long departed for El Norte either in the days of the Salvadoran Civil War, or under the Administration of Bill Clinton who had a soft spot in his heart for oppressed minorities, particularly because he waited far too long to pull the trigger against the Serbs or to speak up against the Hutu genocide in Rwanda.

Jose had stuck it out for no good reason other than inertia. He had enough money from day labor to pay for food and to pay off the authorities who threatened to evict him from his shack on the river, enough whisky and beer, and a hammock slung from two low hanging branches of an old mango tree. The dogs kept thieves and prowlers out, his children were grown and on their own in La Capital, his daughter doing well enough to send a few dollars home every few months, although he never asked how she made her money since she had left home when she was sixteen and had come back only once when her mother, Jose’s wife died.  She put flowers on the grave, ate chicharrons and drank beer, and left on the bus the next day. 

Now that Miranda’s money had stopped coming in, and as his day jobs became few and far between as investment moved to Costa Rica and Panama and there were no signs of any economic movement in San Miguel, he had to emigrate. Now that America had a new president, one who was relaxing all restrictions on border crossings from Mexico, admitting anyone with a claim to persecution or extreme poverty, and giving preference to migrants with minor children (this in reaction to former President Trump’s harsh detainment of such minors in primitive ‘relocation centers’ and summary deportation of their parents), Jose considered that he had a good chance of entry.  

His brother-in-law ran a side business as a coyote and would charge him little as cancellation of a longstanding debt, and Jose had many nieces who would accompany him who would strengthen his case at the border.  Best of all one of his niece’s mothers had, like Jose, long awaited this chance to go north.  The little family of refugees would be complete.

All well and good, except that as word of President Biden’s new ‘Policy of Compassion And Inclusivity’ spread throughout San Miguel, and as hundreds of people packed their bags and headed north, there was serious congestion at the Guatemala-Mexican border. Of the two crossings Tehuantapec was the worst.  Shakedowns, rapes, and extortion were common, and only those with connections or pockets full of money could pass.  

The old America might be back, wetbacks welcome, fields of lettuce, strawberries, green beans, and cauliflower waiting to be picked, welfare rolls expanded, and ICE police defunded so that no one had to fear La Migra any longer, but getting to the American border would not be easy.  Even so, Jose and Maria Andrea never hesitated.  They were used to their own homegrown Salvadoran crooks and thugs, and the Guatemalan police couldn’t possibly be any worse. 

In fact a number of Jose’s younger cousins were members of Mara Salvatrucha MS-13, a violent Salvadoran gang which had ruled Salvador as completely as the old Italian Mafia had ruled New York, and which through its Guatemalan and Mexican associates was able to put pressure on the border patrols of each country.  If, MS-13 said, certain migrants were not given free and easy access across the border, then the families of certain border patrol agents would be killed.

Jose had to go very deeply in debt to his brother-in-law, but had no doubts that once in America, he would be making more than enough money to repay him and to live well. 

Meanwhile the exodus was on.  The number of unaccompanied minors sent by ambitious parents in Salvador and Honduras increased tenfold during the first month of the Biden presidency.  He had said that there would be no punitive gulag cells in which they would be put, so out of compassion he would let them in to be cared for by relatives already in the country or by the state. 

 California, always awash in illegal immigrants called foul and demanded reparations, restitution, or at least some significant federal grant to help them accommodate the influx, and Texas was quick to follow.

Since Jose and his sister-cousin wanted to go to America themselves and had no minors to send on their own, they went with the youngest of the family’s children – little papooses strapped on to Maria Andrea’s back which no ICE police could refuse.

The trip went well – or at least acceptably well given the crowds, lashings, and threats in Tehuantapec, and two week wait at the American border.  No matter how permissive the new immigration policy was, there were certain formalities and some measure of processing to be followed.  The Mexican government, pleased at Biden’s new policies and friendly overtures to its President, happily arranged for temporary shelter on Mexican soil.  The President was well aware that the newly open American borders would take the pressure of his Administration fighting high unemployment and a stagnating economy.  Mexicans could simply wade across the Rio Grande and find work ‘over there’.

Not surprisingly Jose did not find things exactly as he expected them in San Diego.  He and his cousin-sister and nieces stayed in an already crowded house, jobs were not as plentiful as he had hoped, but at least he had a toilet, running water, a decent roof over his head, and prospects.  The picking season would soon start, and agribusinesses, delighted at the new, cheap supply of labor from south of the border, would be hiring many and often.  

Consumers would be delighted at falling produce prices, the cost of nanny and housecleaning services, and the price of house painting and landscaping.   Of course the economy could not productively absorb all comers, so welfare, education, and public health costs began to increase many fold.  Taxes increased proportionately, businesses were let off the hook as they let the state take care of ‘incidental’ labor costs, social divisions were exacerbated as white Americans saw their wages stagnate, their taxes increased, and Spanish displace English.  Both southern California and southern Texas were rapidly becoming separate Latino majority regions.

"Why are we discriminated against?”, shouted Nigerians and Congolese who had no easy river to cross to enter America.  Biden listened and heard, and pressured by BLM and other Black minority rights groups which had help get him elected, he changed immigration policies for those coming to the United States by air.  “We are an inclusive country”, said Biden, “and our diversity depends on our African brothers and sisters – all of whom have diaspora families living in our great land”, and by fiat opened arrival areas of all airports to all African comers.

Before he knew it, the President was under attack from those he least expected to object.  Every minority group his progressive supporters had championed wanted easy access for their relatives abroad.  Indians, Indonesians, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, Comoro Islanders, all joined the now loud and demanding queue to get in.

One morning not long into his presidency, Joe Biden woke up to the same realization of most Americans – Everyone wants to come to America!  And, horribile dictu Donald Trump may have been right.  You cannot simply let everyone in without dire consequences.  Nobody except Jose, his wetback compatriots, and American businesses were happy.  Everyone else bridled at the onslaught of tens of thousands of unwanted immigrants, all driving wages down, the cost of public services and welfare up, and sending taxes through the roof.

“We love our brown, black, and yellow brothers and sisters”, the President repeatedly said, “and America, the country of diversity, inclusivity, and welcome, will always be their home”.  Meanwhile state assemblies and city councils were increasingly restive, more and more former Democrats were considering changing their party allegiance, and mid-term elections were not that far off.

Donald Trump would be the featured speaker at CPAC – the Conservative Political Action Conference – and he would most certainly deliver on his promises.  His Sunday speech would be full of fire and invective, one-liners, and bombast.  The master was back, and not more than a few weeks of the Biden Administration and a surprisingly quiet Donald Trump, his old energy returned.  Sleepy Joe would not have an easy time of it, and the prospects of another Trump term did not seem so farfetched.

Most objective political observers saw this coming – both the irreversible damage of unlimited immigration and the political blowback on Biden’s other progressive agenda items.  He was not going to have an easy time of it.  Compassion, temperance, and an indoor voice don’t work, especially in a divided, contentious America and a salivating cadre of international opponents.

So, hold on to your hats.  Donald Trump is back and is here to stay.

The Trumpster Is Back! Let The Fun And Games Begin Again

Donald Trump will address CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference Sunday (2.28.21), and it is expected that he will either announce his candidacy for election in 2024 or give a strong indication that he will run.  After his defeat, his base – nearly 75 million Americans and 47 percent of the electorate – is as strong, committed, and determined as ever.  Trump may have been defeated, but he will not go away.  Despite his impeachment and acquittal in the Senate, liberal Democrats are still afraid of him, want to pursue criminal and civil suits against him, all in an attempt to prevent him from running.

Of course these blatantly political attempts to circumvent the Constitution will fail, and the worst nightmare of progressives will come true.  Not only will Trump run in 2024, but he will be a loud, brash, and insistent critic of Biden and his extremist policies over the next four years.  Trump will be as oversized, theatrical, and manipulative as he ever was during his presidency.  He will not let ‘Sleepy Joe’ rest.  

Although the liberal media will choose not to cover Trump, and social media will continue to try to limit his access to their forums, he will find ample ways to be heard and be seen.  He will challenge the Constitutionality of media censorship in the courts, he will start up his own media network, and he will be covered by the conservative press.  CNN, MSNBC, and the New York Times will be obliged to cover him – not to address the issues he raises, but to attack him for what they have called his dangerous lies and chicanery.

Of course this is exactly what Trump wants.  He spent his Presidency by infuriating the liberal press, by laughing at their political naivete, playing them like a violin, and getting more press from negative coverage than any adulatory comments from the Right.  Now, after a few months of quiet, he is back; and back he will be with a vengeance.  He will pick up the same cudgels and hammer the Left with them.  He will ridicule, disparage, and dissent; and progressives, just as before, will be flummoxed by this master showman.

Nearly 50 percent of the American electorate never bought Democrats’ charges of misogyny, racism, sexism, and political shenanigans.  They voted against progressive fantasy and storybook Utopianism, against liberal cant and sanctimony, against the permissiveness that encouraged street violence and mayhem, against pompous claims of American systemic racism, and against the promise to open the state treasury for failed programs and initiatives.  

Now that Biden is in office, the Trump electorate will be able to see first hand how right their President was.  Biden’s peremptory moves to roll back Trump’s signal initiatives – attempts to reverse the course of America to the discredited days of early 20th century Progressivism – are exactly what Trump is eager for.  He and his supporters know the fallacy of Biden’s claims and his idealistic and impractical vision of a communalist America and a complaisant partner in geopolitics.  The Russians, Chinese, Iranians, and North Koreans will make the point even clearer, and will take advantage of this global Gandhian and his Utopian vision of a peaceful world.  Trump will be a shoo-in in 2024.

The Nation’s Capital has been quiet since the Inauguration.  President Biden has been simple, patient, temperate, and considerate.  He always wears a mask – the icon of progressivism – never raises his voice, and promises hope and refuge.  He is doing what everyone – Left and Right – expected of him.  Make a good show early and often, show the voters that the ship of state is under sail. 

The media have been fawning and demurring.  Few challenging questions are put to Biden either in his press conferences or in the press.  They are giving him a free ride – not just because of the traditional ‘Honeymoon’ period after the inauguration of a new president, but because they have anointed him as the savior.  We all can worry less about global warming, progressives insist, about the derogation of black lives, the persistent oppression of the poor, the arrogant brutality of the police, and the unequal and demeaning distribution of wealth because Joe Biden is in office. 

Of course this is only the quiet before the storm.  There is no way that corporate America – still and always the power behind the political throne – will stand for punitive taxes, restrictive legislation, and intrusive policies.  They will object to restrictions on fracking and other alternative energy exploitation, the discontinuation of the XL pipeline, and inflationary spending programs.  

As the Supreme Court rules for due process and against the kangaroo courts of American universities, for the rights of businesses to exercise their corporate right to freedom of speech and religion, and against the current juggernaut of media censorship, the electorate will become encouraged if not emboldened.  The more progressives push their gender spectrum, and the more school boards introduce anti-white, reverse racist instruction and promote transgenderism and ‘alternate’ sexuality to children, the angrier citizens will become.  Those who voted for Biden on his promise of inclusivity but sorely disappointed, will turn to Republicans and to Trump.

 

If we are honest, we have to admit that the Donald Trump show was the greatest show on earth.  He revolutionized politics by bringing it out of the sanctimonious chambers of Washington, the halls of the power elite, and the progressive cabals of non-profits.  He proved to America that ‘being presidential’ had nothing to do with good taste, reserve, consideration, and compromise – something Americans understood instinctively.  

After all, we are a nation of Barnum & Bailey, snake-oil salesmen, charlatan big tent preachers, shell game conmen, used car, aluminum siding, real estate, encyclopedia salesmen.  We are still untamed, raw, and impatient.  The image of a president above the fray, decent, moral, and principle – a man of authority and rectitude – simply doesn’t square with reality.  We are not that way, so why should our president?

Not only that, we are a nation of Hollywood, Las Vegas, glitz, yachts, resorts, and arm candy.  Even if we can’t have trophy wives, homes in Biarritz and St Tropez, fast cars and luxury boats, we want them.   We have grown up on glamour, beauty, showy wealth, and the image of success.  We never wanted Jimmy Carter’s cardigan sweaters and homey hearths, nor do we want Joe Biden’s masked humility.  As much as the Left hated Trump for his very raw Americanism, those who voted for him saw him as ‘one of us’, the epitome of the tinsel and the American dream, Western shoot-out machismo, and outrageous ambition.

As much as the Left bridled at his fast and loose ways with ‘the truth’, his braggadocio and impropriety, his cruel and insensitive humor; the Right loved it.  They wanted Eddie Murphy, Jackie Mason, and D.L. Hughley – outrageously politically incorrect, funny men who saw no holds barred and whose comedy resonated not rankled. They said what we thought. Today no one can say what they think, and people are fed up.

Trump’s way to the White House in 2024 will be cleared by mid-term Congressional elections.  Two years will be more than enough to show the irrelevance if not the historic irresponsibility of Biden’s progressivism.  China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Hamas, Houthis, and even a resurgent ISIS will challenge Biden’s one-worldism.  The American electorate will not roll over as fundamental Jeffersonian and Hamiltonian principles are abrogated; and as religion, the nuclear family, economic enterprise, and free speech are dismissed in the name of ‘inclusivity’ and ‘diversity’.

And let’s face it – the last four years have been a wonderful, outrageous, purging, and raucous good time; and we want them back.