The coronavirus pandemic has effectively paralyzed the United States – and much of the world. Many people are preoccupied with COVID-19, its extremely disruptive effects on society and their economic situation, and are crossing their fingers hoping that the disease – which originated in Wuhan in communist China – will spare them and pass sooner rather than later. And yet, in the midst of all this, the open-borders left – both in Congress and the public square – is mainly interested in utilizing the crisis as a pretext to further a radical illegal-aliens-first agenda.
No Illegal Aliens Left Behind
In the House, Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.) introduced the Leave No Taxpayer Behind Act to correct what he considers to be an “egregious error” in the $2 trillion CARES Act – that disqualified ITIN taxpayers from receiving federal cash assistance. Of course, the “ITIN taxpayers” in question include illegal aliens. This follows the lamentations of New York Rep. Alexandria Occasio-Cortez (AOC) and other open-borders radicals that illegal aliens (and other ITIN-less foreign nationals) will not receive coronavirus relief checks – even though many immigrants will (as long as they have Social Security Numbers and meet the income requirements). Not surprisingly, AOC – and fellow “Squad” members and radicals, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar – are among the co-sponsors.
There is very little chance that the bill will even receive a vote on the House floor, let alone go the Senate or the President’s desk. Rather than a serious legislative proposal, this appears to be a public relations stunt to show how much the Democrats care about “immigrants.” It is also yet another installment in the never-ending drumbeat aiming to rhetorically normalize illegal immigration and blur any meaningful differences between citizens/legal immigrants and illegal aliens (thereby insulting the intelligence of the average American).
Using Children To Further the Agenda (Again)
Then there is the Washington Post op-ed urging the release of illegal alien children from immigration detention. The author, Shalyn Fluharty, is the director of a legal advocacy group which “represents women and children seeking asylum.” This plea too did not come out of nowhere, but was published in the wake of demands by radical leftist pro-illegal-alien groups to release some or all detained immigration violators.
The op-ed is a blatantly transparent attempt to capitalize on a global health crisis by opportunistically playing on Americans’ heartstrings to achieve a political objectives that the pro-illegal-alien lobby has been promoting all along. It is certainly natural to sympathize with children who have been placed in an unenviable position by parents who took them on long and dangerous journeys through snake, scorpion, and drug-cartel-infested territory. However, the U.S. is also not holding the children in detention by force: their parents can always voluntarily return with them to their homelands. And, as a FAIR blog has pointed out before, there may be health risks associated with keeping people in detention, but releasing them is no less fraught with risks.
Out-of-Touch Priorities
In the middle of a major public health emergency one would expect Americans to put aside their differences – and pet projects – and focus on the common good. That, however, is apparently too much to ask, at least from the pro-illegal-alien left. The open-borders crowd has seemingly not considered that it may be at least a tad bit inappropriate and tactless to push the cause of people who broke our laws, violated our borders, and remain in our country unlawfully while tens of millions of Americans and legal immigrants are suffering and struggling as a result of the pandemic. However, this latest offensive makes one thing clear about the pro-illegal-alien left: while their ideas may be foolish, naïve, and harmful to the best interests of the United States and its people – earning them an F on this front – they deserve an A+ for effort.
