Petrea: President Biden, Sen. Ossoff aren't really serious about the immigration problem

This commentary is from Georgia Rep. Jesse Petrea (R-Savannah) 

President Joe Biden’s recent executive order on illegal immigration is a political stunt and an attempt to trick the American people before the November election. It’s too little, too late when a president claims to support border security only when he’s down in the polls in an election year. In his first hundred days, the president issued 94 Executive Orders dismantling border security and discarding immigration enforcement tools put in place by President Donald Trump.

President Biden was handed what was arguably the most secure border in history and then intentionally opened it. For more than three years, he claimed he needed new laws to control immigration and to provide homeland security after the world watched President Trump efficiently address the issue with the laws already in place.

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The president’s plan fails to do anything to slow the current migrant wave. First, it continues catch and release, which allowed Laken Riley’s accused murderer to enter the country. Second, it allows 900,000 more migrants to cross the border illegally. It fails to deport any of the close to 8-10 million illegal aliens that Biden has welcomed into the United States in the past three years.

While it is progress to see President Biden admit that he has the Executive Order power to halt border crossings (which he always knew as it has been used by previous presidents), he refuses to stop the flow in a meaningful way.

It is obvious that this administration supports open borders and ignores real homeland security. Under 8 U.S. C1182 (f), the president has the authority “to suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interest of the United States.”

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff recently visited the border to try to fool Georgians into thinking that Democratic leaders support border security. They do not. They are simply changing their tune as the election approaches because they’ve finally figured out that voters are angry about the loss of control of our border. The Biden administration has failed miserably to protect the U.S. border by systematically dismantling the policies and laws put in place which provided record low illegal immigration. The weak approach offered by Ossoff would do nothing to deter illegal crossings.

If Ossoff wants to support true homeland security, he should press the president to use the inherent authority of the White House to halt the tidal wave of illegal entries with these reforms: End the catch and release scheme, reinstate the remain in Mexico policy and begin deporting criminal aliens at previous levels. Only then would we give credibility to claims that Democrats want border security.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Petrea: Biden, Ossoff aren't serious about the immigration problem