By Brian C. Joondeph www.americanthinker.com
President
Donald Trump, only a few weeks into his second term, has almost sealed
America’s borders. Illegal border crossings have dropped by 90 percent as Trump
has directed his agencies to enforce existing laws.
How difficult was that? Why couldn’t former President Joe Biden or his border
czar, Vice President Kamala Harris, do the same? Because they chose not to.
It’s really that simple.
But what about legal immigration—the different visas that allow foreigners to
work, study, travel, and marry Americans?
Grok AI generated image
Immigration is not an all-or-nothing issue. Contrary to what the media and some
Democrats believe, legal and illegal immigration are not the same. It’s akin to
the difference between leaving a grocery store with a bag of groceries after
paying and leaving without paying; one is simply feeding yourself or your
family, while the other is stealing.
In my home state of Colorado, ski resorts hire foreign students, often from the
Southern hemisphere, during their summer break, to work in hotels, restaurants,
and operate ski lifts. They receive seasonal visas, employer-assisted or funded
housing, and return home at the end of the ski season. This represents legal
immigration, albeit temporary, for seasonal workers.
Think about those who enter America illegally, lacking any vetting of their
criminal background or health status, and without a job or stable living
situation. They may commit crimes at the expense of taxpayers, all thanks to the
deep state and American citizens.
FEMA lacked enough funds for hurricane relief in North Carolina, and Elon Musk
uncovered the reason. It appears that President Trump still has some
swamp-draining to accomplish. Illegal immigration was prioritized over legal
immigration.
The @DOGE team just discovered that FEMA sent $59 million last week to
luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants.
Sending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination to the
president’s executive order.
That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on
high-end hotels for illegals!
If crossing America’s border illegally is so easy, why is it so hard to do it
legally? For residents of many countries, obtaining a visa is necessary.
Tourist visas, referred to as B1 or B2 visas, are designed for non-U.S.
residents who want to visit the U.S. for business purposes, attend professional
conferences, visit family, or enjoy a vacation.
Residents of 41 specific countries can obtain a visa waiver, enabling them to
stay in the U.S. for 90 days for business or tourism without needing to apply
for a visa.
These countries are mainly first-world European nations, with some in Asia and
Oceania. Notably missing are nations from the Middle East, Africa, or South
America.
The visa waiver program does not include 150 countries from which most
residents simply want to visit friends and family during the holidays, or
travel to and spend money in cities like New York, Las Vegas, or Miami. How can
they reach the U.S.?
To obtain a travel visa, you must interview at a U.S. embassy or consulate.
This process should be easy and straightforward, but it is anything but,
turning into a nightmare for visa applicants.
In some countries, the wait time for a visa interview at a U.S. consulate may
only be a few days, while in others it can take years.
According to the U.S. State Department, the current wait times for a visitor
visa interview are 433 days in Abu Dhabi, 429 days in Hyderabad, 333 days in
Lagos, and 262 days in Mexico City.
Ironically, last year, one could take a bus or train from Mexico City to the
Texas or Arizona border and be in the U.S. within a few days.
Corporate media shows little interest in visa delays, instead condemning anyone
who advocates for border security as racists or xenophobes. The Wall Street
Journal, in a rare moment of journalism, did weigh in a few years ago. Since
then, there’s been silence from both elected officials and corporate media.
The State Department has been struggling to keep up with visas since 2020 when
the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closing of U.S. consulates around the world,
bringing the application process for entry into the country temporarily to a
halt. Two and a half years later, some consulates are still offering only
emergency appointments.
Though visa issuance has mostly rebounded to prepandemic levels, demand for
visas is so high that appointments for anyone looking to apply are often booked
months or even years out, and the Biden administration has faced mounting anger
from business groups, Silicon Valley companies, universities, hospitals and the
travel industry over the delays.
COVID is long over, but the excuses persist.
There are examples of how these delays affect visitors. A semi-retired Australian
businessman received an invitation to a friend’s wedding in Seattle with 160
days of advance notice.
He learned that he would need to wait between 216 and 300 days for a visa
interview. As a result, he could not attend his friend’s wedding, despite
having spent a decade traveling around the world, including the U.S., for
business.
A woman from Lagos, Nigeria, married to an American man, cannot visit her
husband in the U.S. without a visa, despite being legally married. After the
U.S. State Department gives preliminary approval of her visa application, a
one-year process, she must still wait almost a year for an appointment at the
U.S. embassy in Lagos to receive her visa. Forcing married couples to live
apart for years is insane and abusive.
A family from Bogotá, Colombia, hoping to visit Disney World, will wait 700
days for their visa appointment. A surgeon from Mumbai, India, wishing to
attend the annual meeting of the American College of Surgeons will not receive
an appointment for 444 days, well after the medical conference has ended.
The irony is that if the same physician, family, or woman reached the Southern
U.S. border, they could easily cross over. If they were apprehended while
crossing, they could claim political persecution, request asylum, and gain
entry into the U.S.
They would also receive a welcome basket filled with goodies, including food
stamps, Medicaid health insurance, Social Security income, and various forms of
assistance, such as free education for their children.
Will the State Department address this? Certainly, they have important issues
to handle in the geopolitical arena, but they can also multitask effectively.
The left may equate all immigration, both legal and illegal, as the same thing
in their efforts to label Trump as a racist, xenophobe, or even Hitler, but we
should not fall for their gaslighting.
In the justified zeal to stop illegal immigration, let’s not dismantle the
entire system, including legal immigration for workers, visitors, and spouses.
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