We've Tried Nothing and We're All Out of Ideas
April 18, 2025·20 comments·In Brief
Illegal immigration is a crisis.
Save your protests. The border has been a porous and ill-managed nightmare for years. The Biden administration's unwillingness to properly resource, staff, and support the institutions necessary to maintain a secure border is one of many stains on a flaccid, ineffectual presidency. Illegal immigration was a crisis, it is a crisis, and the only reason I think a reasonable person might refuse to call it that is the fear, not entirely unfounded, that American presidents often use "crisis" as a code word to empower them to establish oppressive policies.
As a people I think we often misapprehend such oppressive crisis policies as the expressions of iron-fisted tyrants looking for any excuse to impose their will. Far more often they are the result of timid administrators without imagination who see a vast problem and quail at the work involved in pursuing its real and often difficult solution. As a rule, oppressive crisis policies are highly visible policies designed to convey the appearance of bold action. When the government does things like mandating universal vaccinations, passing sweeping 'hate crime' laws, creating a dubiously constitutional surveillance state apparatus, and summarily shipping off anyone with a Chicago Bulls cap and a tattoo that makes a boomer uncomfortable to a concentration camp in El Salvador, it isn't a sign of strength and conviction. It's the universal signal that we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas!
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