LARRY KUDLOW: Joe Biden has done nothing to enforce the border

For several months, the Washington rumor was that President Biden was going to come out with some strong executive orders to stop the southern border immigration catastrophe. After denying it for three years, Biden finally came out and acknowledged that he has presidential authority to do something about the border. 

President Trump used that authority to develop programs such as “Remain in Mexico” and Title 42. Along with a partial completion of the wall and a tough mobilization of Homeland Security agents, Trump was able to staunch the flow of illegals. 

Biden has the authority under section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which gives the president authority to “suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens.” Also, there’s the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which added section 287(g) to the Immigration and Nationality Act.  

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The gist of this gives ICE, working with local law enforcement partners, the power to identify and remove incarcerated, criminal non-citizens. So far, Biden has done nothing — probably hoping the issue is going to go away, but it’s not going to go away. 

A recent Issues and Insights TIPP poll shows a 58% majority favored a wall while a plurality of 42% favor deportations to go along with increased border controls. Most important, 85% of Americans want greater enforcement of border laws. 

Joe Biden has done nothing. Jason Riley tells us in the Wall Street Journal that Gallup reported immigration as the most important problem facing the U.S. for the third consecutive month. That’s the longest stretch for this issue in 24 years. 

A Monmouth University poll last February reported that 53% of Americans want a wall constructed along the southern border. That’s the first time that number has surpassed 50%. Even when Mr. Trump was president, a slightly lower 44% favored the wall. 

Now, some history from Jason Riley: how Earl Warren, then the governor of California — the Greg Abbott of his day, according to Jason — pushed President Eisenhower to launch “Operation Wetback” to stop the invasion of illegals, which was imposing a massive welfare burden on his state. 

In mid-1954, within six weeks, more than a million Mexican nationals in California and Texas had been rounded up and forcibly deported. Two years later, Ike was re-elected in a landslide. Let me add that President Trump, running for re-election, is looking to emulate what Earl Warren and Dwight Eisenhower did with respect to deporting illegals and certainly criminals. 

In a congressional hearing today, Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington estimated the cost of the Biden illegal invasion to be $150 billion for healthcare, education and criminal justice. I’m sure that’s a low ball, because there’s almost no telling how high the cost of criminality and violence around the country and especially in the blue sanctuary states and cities has been. 

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New York City estimated a $12 billion cost last summer, but that was nearly a year ago. You can be sure the current estimate is much higher. Additionally, evidence is mounting that Biden’s illegals, who have been given work permits or even green cards, have been taking jobs away from native-born Americans. 

At a minimum, the surge of illegals has reduced wages. With the recent campus riots, the spotlight has temporarily moved away from the open border crisis, but as the polls show, Americans have neither forgotten nor forgiven Joe Biden’s failure to act. That’s the riff. 

This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the May 8, 2024, edition of “Kudlow.”