If you have been following the news for the last 24 months, you know that Joe Biden has opened the southern border of the United States to all comers --- and come they have. Border Patrol numbers indicate illegal migrant border crossings in fiscal year 2022 topped 2.76 million, breaking the previous record.
The 2022 numbers were driven in part by increases in the number of Venezuelans, Cubans and Nicaraguans making the trek north. The fiscal year ’23 numbers already exceed a half a million and we are only 90 days into the FY. In fact, there have been over 160 different nationalities identified crossing our southern border since Joe Biden became president.
Throughout that same 24-month period, there has been a steady cacophony of questions in the daily press briefings and at other “shout out” opportunities asking when Joe Biden was going to the border to see the mess his administration has made. We all see it on the news every morning and every night … that is, if you watch Fox Cable News and witness the reporting of their man-on-the-ground Bill Melugin.
Groups of several hundred wading across the Rio Grande and turning themselves into the Border Patrol fully expecting to be released into the interior of the United States. And so, they are --- and they just keep coming.
With a pending announcement that a run for president in ‘24 might be coming from Biden, any day, he has decided that perhaps now would be a good time to visit the border and see what a substantial part of America has been so concerned about. He was on his way to the Conference of the Americas in Mexico. So, a short 4-hour visit to the border should be enough to placate those who think he may not be enforcing the laws he swore to uphold.
Now, the headline here addresses a “Potemkin Village” and if you don’t know what that is, let’s take a quick review … A "Potemkin village" signifies any deceptive or false construct, conjured often by cruel regimes, to deceive both those within the land and those peering in from outside.
Grigory Potemkin was a dashing 18th century Russian nobleman who intrigued in courts, smote his enemies upon the steppes, and allegedly wooed Catherine the Great. It was while he was courting his nation's comely Tsarina — at least according to legend ---and during Catherine's 1783 tour of new Russian possessions in the Crimea, Potemkin endeavored to show her the best face of the empire. As the story goes, pasteboard facades of pretty towns were set up at a distance on riverbanks … and whole populations of serfs were moved around and dressed up in fanciful garb to flaunt a prosperity that didn't exist (later precipitating famine in the region).
Now from the year 1783, fast forward to 2023, El Paso, Texas and the arrival of the President’s 747 on the tarmac at El Paso International Airport. An official motorcade from the airport to the border – for a photo-op with agents in front of the wall --- the same one built by Trump and stopped by Biden and low and behold – not an illegal migrant to be seen!
Strange … they have been overrunning the facilities in El Paso for months – where did they go?
Well, never mind, Biden is a busy guy and so, it’s off to the next stop … a non-profit that has facilities to care for the illegals --- The Salvation Army is turned out in their bright brass-buttoned uniforms to greet the president (who by the way is picked up on a hot mike commenting that he thought it was the Secret Service – big “S” and all). But alas and alack, there is not an illegal in the house – not one for Biden to ask “Why did you come?” or “How was the trip up from Guatemala?” or “Where are your parents?” or “Were you raped or trafficked by the cartels?” or “How much did you pay the coyotes?” or “Were you required to carry fentanyl into the US” or “Where are you going to live?” … the list goes on, but you get the point – NOT ONE! NONE AT THE BORDER AND NOT ONE IN THE HOUSE!
A few discussions with handpicked law enforcement folks and it was “wheels up” just four hours later. The motorcade through the street of El Paso did not show all the illegals sleeping in the streets or the mess that they were making of the El Paso community.
The “El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser issued the state of emergency declaration to allow the city on the U.S. border with Mexico to tap into additional resources that are expected to become necessary after Title 42 expulsions was scheduled to end on Dec. 21, the El Paso Times reported.”
But Biden did not see that El Paso – oh no … no state of emergency mentioned by the Mayor or the City Council or any other elected Democrat. Did I mention that the Republican Representative from the El Paso district he represents was not invited to the party?!
So, it’s clear --- If the situation on the southern border is going to get fixed, it will take the new Republican majority in the House of Representative to do the fixin’. They must stick together on this because if the Dems see the slightest crack in their resolve, they will drive a wedge right into it. The Dems are happy with their Potemkin Village --- and the press cannot be relied upon to tell the story … a manufactured “Potemkin” view of the border crisis is OK by them. The only thing they care about --- it ain’t Trump and his wall --- and that is all that matters to them.
So, shame Mr. Biden, shame on you. The deaths of over 100,000 Americans from fentanyl – that’s on you. The 856 illegals that died trying to enter the US at the hands of the coyotes – that’s on you. The number of jobs Americans will lose to illegals --- that’s on you as well. You swore an oath to uphold the laws of this country and you have willfully failed to do it – and America is a worse place for it. SHAME!