There's something odd about the resistance that some countries are trying to erect against American deportation of their citizens who've come here illegally. Repeatedly we've been told that these immigrants are hard workers who make a valuable contribution to American society and that America is better off for having them in it.
That's doubtless true for many of them, but then why is it that when Mr. Trump tries to fly them back to their country of origin the leaders of those countries refuse to accept them?
First Mexico refused to cooperate, then Columbia, and now Haiti. Leaders of the first two countries have since been persuaded by Mr. Trump that they should reconsider, which they quickly did and have subsequently declared that their initial refusals were something of an April Fools joke they played on their own public.
Haiti's interim president, Leslie Voltaire, is pleading with Pope Francis to help him because Mr. Trump's promise to send back most of the 1.5 million Haitians would be "catastrophic" for the country which is already reeling from anarchy and violence.
It's not clear that all of these 1.5 million Haitians are in the country illegally, but even so, why would Mr. Voltaire not want these his citizens, many of whom are doubtless among the most enterprising of his country's population, to return to Haiti where they can do some good for their fellow Haitians?
If the deportees are such an asset to the U.S. wouldn't they a forteriori be an asset to their home country? Why don't the leaders of these countries want their own hard-working citizens returned so that they can work to improve their native land? Perhaps there are at least two reasons:
1. They're lying to us about the quality of the migrants: Many, maybe most, migrants are in fact poor and unskilled and are thus a drain on services provided by governments that are already under financial stress. Sending them off to the U.S. is a kind of social safety valve that eases the pressure on the government to provide care for these people.
Furthermore, a not insignificant percentage of the migrants are criminals and otherwise undesirable ne'er-do-wells that their home countries are glad to be rid of. The leaders of those countries are more than happy to make their thugs our problem.
2. They're own economies benefit to some extent from "remittances" sent back from the U.S. by those migrants who find work here but who may not have opportunities in their home countries to be productive.
In either case, the benefit to the U.S. from Mr. Biden's "no border" policy is dwarfed by the costs to American citizens. Mr. Trump was elected largely because he promised to put a stop to the insanity of the last four years, and he seems so far to be following through on the promise.
