Burden of President Biden’s broken immigration policies weighs heavy on Louisiana

This op-ed by Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) first appeared in the Daily Advertiser on August 28, 2023.

Many in Washington like to pretend President Biden’s border crisis is over, but the numbers don’t lie.

In July alone, U.S. border agents arrested more than 130,000 migrants trying to bypass our legal immigration system and enter the country illegally. That’s more people than the entire population of Lafayette in just one month — and that’s only the migrants we stopped.

Many more were not caught, and many who were caught were allowed in any way because they claimed to be refugees who feared political persecution in their own country. A lot of these migrants will be found not to be political refugees, but they know they will be released into our country if they merely promise Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that they will contact the agency to establish a court date to litigate their claim of refugee status.

Obviously, the people sneaking across the border have already demonstrated their contempt for our laws. ICE is more likely to hear from Bigfoot than these immigrants. Roughly 40 percent of migrants disappear into states like Louisiana without ever contacting ICE for a court date. Either way, the Biden administration will not deport them.

Since taking office, President Biden has released 2 million migrants into the United States. We really don’t know these people, which creates concerns about crime and public safety. But someone must also foot the bill for the 2 million more people who must access our roads, schools, jails, fire departments and other public services, too.

According to one estimate, Louisianans pay an additional $4,613 per migrant — a total of $604 million per year — in state taxes because of illegal immigration. At a time when Louisiana families also must spend an additional $765 per month because of inflation, the $604 million taxpayers are investing in noncitizens who bypassed our legal immigration system could provide a lot of relief to Louisiana families.

Louisiana isn’t suffering alone. New York City officials told migrants the Big Apple has got “no more room.” Chicago declared a state of emergency because of the high costs of supporting migrants. Martha’s Vineyard had a full meltdown over how this millionaires’ hangout just didn’t have the resources to aid migrants. Apparently, the open border advocates in these “sanctuary cities” only like illegal immigration when migrants stay in conservative states near the border — states like Louisiana.

The urban and coastal elites might be hypocrites, but they’re not wrong: Ceaseless migration is draining cities and states of the resources they need to care for their own taxpaying citizens. Even worse, it has turned our border into a hotbed of drug trafficking, human smuggling and violent crime.

Border agents confiscated more than 1,500 pounds of fentanyl in June alone, enough poison to kill the entire country. In Louisiana, we lost 2,352 people to drug overdoses last year. Nearly all of those probably involved fentanyl. In New Orleans, officials found fentanyl in 94 percent of overdose victims. In East Baton Rouge Parish, the drug was present in 88 percent of overdose victims. In St. Tammany Parish, 11 people die from fentanyl overdoses each month.

Yet, when I tried to increase prison sentences for predators convicted of feeding fentanyl to our children, my Democratic colleagues in Washington blocked my bill.

Meanwhile, the cartels are getting rich by killing thousands of Americans with their poison and leading caravans of unvetted migrants, including 143 members of the Terrorist Watchlist, to America’s doorstep. They traffic women and children and kidnap American tourists. They terrorize people for profit. Yet, when I introduced a bill to classify these cartels as terrorist organizations, Senate Democrats blocked that effort, too.

Why would anyone abide by America’s legal immigration process when they can just walk into the country, skip their court dates, and — in many cases — begin taking advantage of American entitlement programs? I’ve tried to pass a bill that would close the “catch-and-release” loophole, but, again, Democrats blocked it, rubbing salt in the wounds of the good people waiting to enter our country legally. German engineers and Nigerian doctors who are patiently waiting in line in our legal immigration system have dreams, too.

America is the freest, most prosperous country in the world, but we cannot afford to ignore our lawless border and the suffering it has caused people. I’ll continue to press President Biden and my colleagues in Congress to recognize the mess they made with stupid border policies so we can work together to give the American people the secure border they deserve.

Op eds

Burden of President Biden’s broken immigration policies weighs heavy on Louisiana

Aug 29 2023