Motives behind illegal immigration

The wave of migrants illegally crossing America's southern border and the Biden administration's refusal to do what is necessary to stop them (as in build the wall), was first defended as a humanitarian effort to help people who were fleeing from dictatorships and violence in their home countries. Most traveled from Mexico, Central America and increasingly South America, but more recently from scores of countries as far away as China and Africa.

American compassion was on display as volunteers went to the border to assist with housing, food, and transportation to cities around the country. Soon the flow became uncontrollable. The Biden administration has consistently and erroneously claimed the border is closed and under control, while video shows otherwise. State and city leaders who had declared "sanctuary cities" and "sanctuary states" for migrants are now pleading for federal help as many — especially in New York City and the state — are running out of space and money to care for them.

Roughly 100,000 migrants have come to New York's five boroughs, forcing Mayor Eric Adams to come up with emergency shelters, reports the New York Post.

According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), "Despite the happy talk coming out of the Biden administration, claiming that their policies have reduced illegal immigration, the July Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data show precisely the opposite. Overall CBP encounters in July were 245,286, up from 238,929 in July 2022. Even Southwest Border encounters between ports of entry — which had been artificially reduced because the administration has been massively abusing its parole authority to allow many inadmissible aliens to enter — rose sharply in July, even as temperatures soared into the triple digits.

"By every metric, illegal immigration increased last month — at the Southwest border, the Northern border, unaccompanied children, family units and single adults. In the 30 months that President Biden has been in office, there have been 6.9 million CBP encounters and 1.7 million known gotaways."

In 2022, U.S. Border Patrol reported "98 encounters with people on the U.S. government's terrorist watchlist along the southwest border." Those individuals "were stopped by border agents, and did not escape into the U.S." What if they had escaped? What if some migrants are criminals, gang members, or drug smugglers?

Schools in some areas are being challenged to come up with space and sufficient foreign language speakers to teach migrant children. How does this impact how teachers educate young Americans who speak English?

Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis took a hardline position during last week's GOP debate, saying as president he would detain and deport all who have entered the country illegally.

The public is beginning to push back as hotels, parks and other facilities have been taken over by the migrants. Protesters have shown up at the home of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who once declared New York a sanctuary city where migrants are welcome. Now he and the state are going to spend an estimated $4 billion this coming year housing and feeding "the nearly 55,000 asylum seekers still in the city's care."

And there are more coming.

A rally last Monday on Staten Island drew more than 400 people protesting the decision to turn a shuttered Catholic school into a migrant shelter.

As to motivation, there is talk about getting the migrants work permits. With them, they can vote in New York municipal elections. Anyone see a pattern here? With the right to vote, migrants could vote for the politicians who promise to give them more stuff. And then there's the possibility that laws would be changed so that migrants can vote in federal elections. Wouldn't this ensure that Democrats stay in power?

Should this be an issue in the 2024 presidential campaign? You bet it should.

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Cal Thomas, America's most-syndicated columnist, is the author of 10 books.