On February 12th, The New York Post published a Douglas Murray piece entitled “Following the law is the only sensible way to address the illegal immigration mess.” Toward the end, he opined:
The [Biden] administration set up a huge problem and its supporters now criticize all efforts to address it.
But why shouldn’t there be more criticism of people who caused the mess than there is for the people who are trying to clean it up?
Why shouldn’t the people who flooded this country with illegals be the ones who are protested — peacefully — by people who care about this country?
Why not indeed? Let’s remember that Alejandro Mayorkas, who was in charge of immigration under Biden, was also in charge under Obama, first at USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) then later at DHS (Department of Homeland Security).
Mayorkas was a bad dude from way back. He got caught in July of 2010 when he was in charge of Obama’s USCIS, with a memo on how to do an end-run around congress. Remember when they used to talk about end-runs so casually? And the press just went along? No yipping dogs in the press room? Check out this headline, no outrage detected. It’s an A.P. article published in the Seattle Times:
“Agency Weighs Skirting Congress on Immigration”
How nice for them. From the article, published July 30, 2010 (bold added):
“The Obama administration, unable to push an immigration overhaul through Congress, is considering ways it could go around lawmakers to let undocumented immigrants stay in the United States, according to an agency memo.
The internal draft written by officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services outlines ways the government could provide ‘relief’ to illegal immigrants – including delaying deportation for some, perhaps indefinitely, or granting green cards to others – in the absence of legislation revamping the system.”
According to The New York Times at the time, administration officials conceded that title of the memo, “Administrative Alternatives to Comprehensive Immigration Reform,” was “provocative,” but “sought to play down the memo” going to so far as to lie deny that “they were pursuing any plan to legalize millions of illegal immigrants by fiat.”
They said the proposals were largely ‘notional’ and most had not been approved as policy by Alejandro Mayorkas, the director of Citizenship and Immigration Services. However, the memo is signed by some of the highest officials in the agency, including Roxana Bacon, the general counsel, and Denise Vanison, the chief of the office of policy and strategy.
“Most had not been approved as policy” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. “Most” most assuredly means “all” actually had been approved as “policy” but just because they weren’t official policy yet, doesn’t mean they weren’t well on their way — which we now know from history, they were — via DACA, just two short years later. And where did all the applications for “deferred” removal go? That’s right: USCIS, the agency circulating the memo.
Weasels. Mayorkas had this worked out from way back. Way before Obama spoke DACA into being. And way, way before Mayorkas abandoned any notion of even an administrative end-run and just opened the southern border wholesale under Biden.
So, yes, Mr. Murray, that’s a fair question: why isn’t Alejandro Mayorkas’ home being surrounded by mobs of angry Americans? Doing what the left did in Minneapolis outside the hotels of ICE agents; creating a racket so they couldn’t sleep? How Mayorkas sleeps at night given what he did to this country is a wonder to me. He should be up all night.
And what about “border czar” Kamala Harris? Or even old Joe himself? Not that he was aware. He probably wasn’t, to be perfectly fair. His brain was applesauce. But I don’t see mobs outside their homes either, and they were the ones ostensibly in charge of Mayorkas.
No, the answer to why we aren’t clanging pots and pans outside their homes is obvious: we’re civilized. We have jobs. Families. Lives.
But count me among those who would smile if a noisy mob did show up.