The White House and mainstream media announced Vice President Kamala Harris talking with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday about the U.S. providing more than 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines. However, Obrador’s comments revealed there was a bit more to the conversation.
The Mexican president’s tweet following the phone call said (in translation), “We spoke again with Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States. In good terms, we dealt with the immigration issue, the complete opening of the northern border to reactivate our economies and continue with mutual cooperation to face the pandemic.”
Say what? While Harris touted vaccines, Mexico’s leader bragged about efforts to fully reopen the border. The border has officially been closed to many forms of travel since March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
But many Americans already agree the border is wide open. Every day, new videos and photos are shared of illegal immigrants crossing the border into America. More than 6,000 are recorded daily, with more than 210,000 in July alone.
To say the border is closed would be a bit of an exaggeration. Just like Harris claiming her call was all about vaccines for the people of Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries.
Last week, more than 1,500 illegal immigrants reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 just in McAllen, Texas. The community is now building a tent city after the number have greatly outgrown the ability of any local hotel to contain.
Worse, the McAllen bus station is packed with new immigrants headed across America. It is unclear who has the coronavirus and who does not, and that doesn’t include the fact that many of those traveling do not have legal status.
Now Harris wants to negotiate for a “complete opening of the northern border.” Perhaps there will be an effort to legalize more of the people entering the nation from the start. However, current public sentiment is very concerned with the spread of COVID-19, leading to a big show about the number of vaccines in Mexico.
Expect a few months from now to see the Biden administration reopen the border following the news that a certain higher percentage of Mexicans have been vaccinated and numbers at the border have decreased. We’ll then see a whole new chapter in the border crisis as the administration seeks to redefine what travel is legal versus illegal.
The changes will also become important as Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott ramps up his plans to arrest people at the border. In addition, his state is now starting its own fence in order to slow the surge at the border and arrest people on state charges if the barrier is crossed.
The concern in Abbott’s case will become enforcement. Even if the state arrested every illegal immigrant who crossed in a single day, 6,000 people would overwhelm any amount of jail or prison space. Instead, the best he’ll be able to do is slow the damage until the midterm elections.
Plus, if the border is wide open, many of those entering the nation may do so legally. The move would put even more strain on a nearly impossible task for Border Patrol at our nation’s southern border.
