Broken Border Leaves America Less Safe

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At this moment in history, border security and immigration policy are matters of great concern amongst Americans. An August Economist/YouGov poll revealed that immigration was one of the four issues that registered voters in the U.S. found to be most important.

Border security and immigration policy aren’t just important to Americans generally; they are important to American Christians as well. Followers of Christ hold differing views on these topics. Some believers’ views are chiefly informed by a desire to be good neighbors and show Christian compassion to migrants, while other believers’ views are primarily influenced by respect for the rule of law and concerns about the dangers and burdens of unchecked migration.

Regardless of one’s views on border security and immigration, a recent article by Steven Malanga of the Manhattan Institute makes the case that the wave of illegal immigration across the southern border of the U.S. has made our nation less safe. Entitled “No, You’re Not Imagining a Migrant Crime Spree,” the article asserts that “immigrant gangs have seized control of many drug- and human-trafficking networks and have unleashed robbery sprees across the nation.”

According to Malanga, an estimated eight million illegal immigrants have attempted to enter the United States without permission over the past four years; the federal government has allowed up to 3.3 million of those persons to enter the country while awaiting immigration hearings. Malanga adds that an estimated 1.6 million-1.7 million illegal immigrants have entered the U.S. without being encountered by border security during the same period. During the same period, however, the number of people expelled from the U.S. as criminal aliens significantly dropped, as the federal government instructed immigration officials not to remove such aliens unless they were deemed to be an immediate public safety risk.

Malanga states that data from the Federation for American Immigration Reform on the ten states with the greatest number of illegal aliens shows “on average, illegals were more than twice as likely to be in prison in California, compared with other state residents; they were twice as likely to be in prison in New York, too; in New Jersey, they were nearly four times as likely, and in Arizona, nearly five times.”

Malanga argues that a “soft-on-crime approach—especially combined with sanctuary policies that keep cops from cooperating with immigration authorities—has resulted in countless examples of repeat-offender aliens getting off scot-free.” Malanga adds that “violent crime levels remain well above 2019 levels,” and that crimes committed by illegal aliens have been not only destructive, but financially costly. In discussing opioid trafficking by illegal immigrants in Montana; Chinese undocumented gang members’ involvement in Chinese mafia-directed prostitution, drug cultivation, and drug trafficking in Oklahoma; and spikes in retail theft and burglary theft by gangs of undocumented immigrants in various other states, Malanga makes it clear that the connection between illegal immigration and crime in the U.S. is significant.

The $64,000 question raised by Malanga’s piece is this: In light of the recent wave of illegal immigration, what aspects of U.S. policy (if any) should change? Malanga proposes the following: “A crucial starting point would be to remove thousands of known illegal felons, and to end many local authorities’ practice of releasing criminal illegals back into society. This is the least that America should do to protect its citizens, as well as those foreigners here legally.” These ideas are a good start, but they cannot be effective unless the United States first asserts and retains control over its borders and its ports of entry. Only then can the United States do the difficult work of creating an immigration policy that welcomes newcomers without placing the safety of those newcomers, and the rest of the nation, in jeopardy. It is hoped that the difficult experiences of the past few years will yield a broad consensus amongst American Christians and other Americans on this common-sense proposition.

The post Broken Border Leaves America Less Safe appeared first on New York Families Foundation.

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