By Bill Wilson
You wouldn’t know it from the mainstream media blackout of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but the Democratic primary contender made a trip to the southern border Tuesday, visiting Yuma, Arizona where thousands of migrants enter the U.S. illegally each week.
Kennedy documented the trip on Twitter, posting a video of himself at the border near Yuma where he said he personally watched nearly 150 migrants enter the U.S. illegally within an hour.
After meeting with Yuma County Sherriff Leon Willmot, Kennedy expressed his willingness to learn about the reality of illegal migrants crossing into the U.S., Tweeting, “I’m at the border learning about the crisis here. So many heartbreaking stories.”
Kennedy stated in a follow up Tweet that the migrant population in Yuma has grown so significantly through the city’s proximity to the border that the local maternity ward had nearly no beds for local mothers, leaving them to delay induced births by weeks.
“200,000 residents in Yuma. 310,000 migrants last year”, Kennedy Tweeted Tuesday. “Migrant Moms occupied 32 of 36 beds in Yuma hospital maternity ward so that local moms had to delay induced pregnancies for two weeks”.
“This is a humanitarian crisis”, Kennedy said in the video posted to Twitter. “Because of the understanding across the globe that we now have an open border here, there are people being drawn here, they’re being abused, there are all kinds of, just horrific stories, and this is not a good thing for our country. It’s not a good thing for these people, and it is unsustainable.”
Kennedy has yet to definitively state his immigration and border security stances, but at minimum the Democratic contender is not shying away from the issue.
Americans for Limited Government Foundation President Richard Manning remarked, “the border is not and should not be a partisan issue. Any candidate purporting to represent the American People needs to recognize the crisis that open borders has caused and put an end to it.”
The border crisis under the Biden Administration is far from solved. As the New York Post reported recently, Biden’s strategy appears to be less about securing the border and more about creating legal loopholes for those who break U.S. law. Todd Bensman recently reported for the Post that families of illegals are heading into Texas and being admitted “no questions asked”.
Mark Krikorian, also for the Post, indicated part of the Biden Administration’s solution is to allow thousands of illegals to enter the United States without legal status using the Custom and Border Protection’s CPB One app.
This is an issue on which Americans’ patience is growing thin. A Gallup report from February of this year found a significant rise in dissatisfaction with immigration over the past two years, with the bulk of those who are dissatisfied saying they want immigration levels curbed. Two-thirds (63%) of Americans are currently dissatisfied with immigration, the highest share in over a decade.
The Gallup report found that among those who are dissatisfied, a full 64% (which is equivalent to approximately 40% of Americans) want less immigration into the U.S., while just 8% want more, and 15% aren’t sure.
The border is once again a focal point, and it is likely to continue to be one leading up to the 2024 election. Americans are clear in their desire for immigration levels to be curbed, particularly in light of the recent border crisis. With Kennedy’s visit to the border and statement that open borders are unsustainable it is possible border security will become a bipartisan issue.
But whether it returns to a true bi-partisan issue, the public was motivated in 2016 to an extent that it propelled Donald Trump to the White House. Things have only gotten worse and more abusive to the American people. History is going to repeat itself one way to the other – either the issue is addressed by all parties in the government or the People will elect those that will.
Bill Wilson is the former president of Americans for Limited Government.
