[Adapted from the latest Radio Derb, now available exclusively on VDARE.com]

One heartening result from the Iowa caucuses is the one noted at length by our own correspondent Washington Watcher II on Tuesday: the salience of the immigration issue as a top concern among Iowa caucus goers, and among Republican voters in general, nationwide. The gross excesses of the Biden administration’s Open Borders policy have stirred deep resentment all over.

That’s certainly good; but there are cautionary points (We Are Doomed—J. Derbyshire) to be added.

One cautionary point is straightforwardly political. The Regime can read the numbers just as well as we can. They know that the border chaos and the lesser chaoses it has spawned all over, especially in Blue State ”Sanctuary Cities,” will be a negative for the Democratic Party in this year’s elections.

There are things they can do about this. Most obviously, they can reduce the numbers of Third World settler-colonists coming into the USA.

A great many voters have little or no political memory. By the end of Joe Biden’s fourth year in the White House, the excesses of his first three years will be a fading memory.

OK, but how to reduce the incoming numbers? The Regime could of course just apply our immigration laws strictly, as intended. They could, for example, return to granting parole for noncitizens only to cases of  ”urgent humanitarian or significant public benefit reasons for a person to be in the United States,” [8 CFR § 212.5 - Parole of aliens into the United States.] instead of handing out parole certifications like birthday candy.

Strict application of the immigration laws is, though, the last thing the Regime will consider. What else we got?

Well, since most of the illegal settlers come over the border from Mexico, why not do a deal with the Mexican government to prevent illegals reaching the border in such large numbers?

That is the path our federal government has taken. Last month Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas flew down to Mexico to meet with that country’s President López Obrador, popularly known as ”AMLO.”

Newspaper reports following the meeting told us it was a big nothingburger. In the December 28th New York Post, for example, CIS’s Andrew Arthur reported that

The resulting ”Joint Communique” from that parley reveals Mexico City has no interest in assisting an administration that won’t secure US borders. [Mexico’s president rolls Biden, gives US worse than nothing on border]  

Migration talks in Mexico served only the leftist agenda of amnesty, improved relations with Cuba & Venezuela, and more foreign aid to sending countries for "root causes"/propping up dysfunctional nations. https://t.co/kRZso9UzmO via @nypost

— Jessica Vaughan (@JessicaV_CIS) December 29, 2023

Yet strangely, the numbers of border crossings from Mexico have dropped dramatically since then. Border Patrol was reporting daily encounters of twelve to fourteen thousand in late December. Latest figures show a big drop, to four or five thousand, according to the Center for Immigration Studies’s Todd Bensman in the CIS.org article below.

How strange! Could it be that the December meeting was a nothingburger only in appearance? That some deal was made behind the scenes—a deal that Washington would prefer go unreported?

It certainly could. Journalists, notably Mary Anastasia O’Grady at the Wall Street Journal dug around in Mexico’s own news outlets and connected the dots [Is AMLO Blackmailing Biden?, WSJ, January 7, 2024 (Non-paywalled MSN link.)]

Yes, Mexico’s President cut a deal with the Gang of Two.

On his side of the deal, AMLO has agreed to round up Central American would-be invaders in Mexico’s north and ship them to Mexico’s south. There they can either proceed to go home to Guatemala, Nicaragua, etc., or else dwell for years in bureaucratic limbo waiting for travel permission from the Mexican authorities.

There have been other measures, too. A huge, longstanding camp of would-be invaders, just across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas, has been bulldozed. Deep anti-pedestrian trenches have been dug around it to prevent re-population.

Mexico has bulldozed a "migrant" camp in Matamoros, across the river from Brownsville—and dug trenches to prevent the "migrants" returning. https://t.co/k7IS2w7lUt pic.twitter.com/61dK1XrMGQ

— VDARE (@vdare) January 20, 2024

 Railyards all over Mexico are being blockaded by Mexican military to stop invaders riding north on their locomotives.

[Recent Sky-High Levels of Illegal Migration Are Dropping Fast—and Here’s Why, by Todd Bensman, CIS.org, January 17, 2024]

Hence the reduction in numbers. Four and five thousand a day is still a lot, but it’s way fewer than before. With appropriate instructions from Washington to the Regime media, come November the horror scenes of the past three years will be a fading memory with the American electorate. That’s the hope.

So AMLO has done a major favor to Biden and his party. What did he get in return?

Well, he got money, of course. This is Latin America we’re talking about. Quote from Todd Bensman in the New York Post today, January 19th:

AMLO has called for $20 billion dollars to be shared among his country and some others, for starters, according to media reports.

[Has Biden bribed Mexico to control border—and help him win the election?]

That’s U.S. taxpayers’ money, of course—your money and my money.

And then, there’s the hope that by helping Biden, AMLO may spare himself from the rigors of another Trump presidency. Trump took a hard line with Mexico, threatening trade tariffs and such. AMLO can reasonably hope for a better deal from a Biden second term.

And there are rumors that the Gang of Two even offered AMLO Amnesty for Mexican illegals—the UniParty’s longstanding goal [Amnesty remains priority for Biden admin, Democrats even amid record border numbers, by Adam Shaw, Fox News, January 2, 2024].

There is ideology in play, too. According to the Wall Street Journal aforementioned O’Grady, AMLO really really hates the rhetoric coming out of Washington, from Kamala Harris for example, about the ”root causes” driving the invaders north—poverty, corruption, and insecurity in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Cuba.

 Quote from Ms. O’Grady, speaking of AMLO:

He’s also a nationalist with a strong authoritarian streak who is trying to centralize power. The last thing he wants is a coalition of democracies in the Americas, led by the U.S., pressuring him to respect human rights and the independence of institutions.

This explains his defense of the military dictatorships in the region.

So that’s the deal: cozy up to Mexico’s President, stuff some money in his pockets, promise better treatment than he’d get from Trump, stop saying unkind things about Latino dictatorships. In return we get less horrific numbers coming across our Southern border.

For now. If Biden wins a second term, of course, the whole deal will likely unravel. AMLO will demand more billions, Washington will ignore him, and the big rush will be on again.

Eh, the things you have to do to get elected…

A second cautionary point: immigration romanticism that still has a strong grip on our collective imagination. Nation of immigrants! Statue of Liberty! Huddled masses yearning to breathe free! You know the script.

Here at VDARE.com we are not ”anti-immigration.” Heck, I am an immigrant, my wife is an immigrant, Peter Brimelow is an immigrant, and so on. We are fine with immigration. We just think it should be discussed, debated, and conducted rationally, as a policy, like farm supports, interstate commerce, healthcare provision, and other issues of general concern.

How many more settlers do we want? From where? With what preferred attributes and skills? It’s policy, not a romantic dream.

Living in the suburbs of New York City, my TV evening news has been running regular stories about illegal aliens pouring into that city—tens of thousands now in city care. Hotels, parks, even schools have been given over to the needs of the illegals, at a cost to the city of billions.

So on those news clips we see disgruntled New Yorkers complaining about the associated disorder—homelessness, begging, crime. As often as not, though, the citizen being interviewed qualifies his complaints by adding something like: ”Of course, I understand they are just seeking a better life…” or ”It’s not that I don’t want to help them…”

That’s the immigration romanticism kicking in. That’s when I yell at the TV set: ”Hey, a guy who robs a bank is seeking a better life!” or ”Hey, if a Venezuelan needs help, his first call should be on his fellow Venezuelans, IN VENEZUELA!”

Immigration isn’t a romantic crusade, it’s a policy, like figuring how many aircraft carriers to build, or whether to issue permits for oil drilling.

It’s a policy.

Sheesh.

John Derbyshire [email him] writes an incredible amount on all sorts of subjects for all kinds of outlets. (This no longer includes National Review, whose editors had some kind of tantrum and fired him.) He is the author of We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism and several other books. He has had two books published by VDARE.com com: FROM THE DISSIDENT RIGHT (also available in Kindle) and FROM THE DISSIDENT RIGHT II: ESSAYS 2013.

For years he’s been podcasting at Radio Derb, now available at VDARE.com for no charge. His writings are archived at JohnDerbyshire.com.

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