From the Oval Office, President Biden made an impassioned mid-October address that laid out the stakes for Americans as to why they must support Israel and Ukraine in their wars against aggressors Hamas and Russia. He called the wars an American national security imperative, with victory critical to the future of democracies worldwide.
Biden spoke forcefully, but unconvincingly to many in his audience. Included in Biden’s message was an “urgent budget request” – his proposed $106 billion package that designated $64.1 billion for Ukraine. But Biden gave short shrift to Israel, a proposed $14.3 billion, and tagged on $10 billion for humanitarian assistance, a category that will give $850 million to process more illegal immigrants at the border.
Since the start of Ukraine’s endless war with Russia in 2022, the U.S. has spent more than $135 billion on Ukraine. For its ally Israel, since its founding as an independent state in 1948, the U.S. has provided just over $150 billion. Biden’s latest request would tie Israel’s $14.3 billion to Ukraine’s $61.4 billion. But Louisiana U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson’s election as House Speaker put Biden’s bid for continued Ukraine funding in doubt; Johnson is a long-time opponent to indefinite Ukraine funding.
Johnson did, however, agree to $14.6 billion for Israel, slightly more than Biden requested, with the caveat that each dollar must be offset by an equal amount in federal government spending cuts, a process called “pay for’s.”
Biden urged Americans to get behind Israel and Ukraine’s defenses because support “is vital for national security.” The president’s plea to send Ukraine more billions while the Southern U.S. border remains wide open, and exploitable to terrorists, is incomprehensible, and it is unacceptable to Johnson and millions of concerned Americans. Ukraine is a profoundly corrupt country. Transparency International, a worldwide movement that works to expose corruption and the injustice it inflicts, ranks Ukraine No. 116 out of the 180 nations it evaluated, a red flag to lenders since monies sent aren’t specifically accounted for in detail.
Biden and his administration’s like-minded, pro-war Secretaries of Defense and State, Tony Blinken and Lloyd Austin, are staunchly behind Ukraine. In September, Blinken made his fourth trip to Kyiv to give President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a message from Biden: the U.S. wants “to reaffirm strongly our support” for Ukraine. Austin, in a recent telephone call to Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, reassured his Ukrainian counterpart of the U.S.’s continued support.
Yet, none of the federal government’s three most powerful and influential – Biden, Blinken and Austin – have even hinted at what dangerous and possibly fatal consequences could evolve from the border invasion.
In October alone, Customs and Border Protection apprehended 100 Syrians and 50 Iranians. From Oct. 8-14 six Iranians, three Lebanese, one Egyptian and one Saudi Arabian were arrested trying to cross the Rio Grande River in the Del Rio Sector, which includes besieged Eagle Pass.
Because of ongoing terrorism, instability and anti-American sentiments in the region, Syria and Iran are listed under State Department Level 4 Travel Advisories: DO NOT TRAVEL. Adding to the homeland’s risk from Middle Eastern nationals who may harbor terrorist intentions is the growing number of what Customs and Border Protection refers to as “known gotaways,” 23,000 during October’s first three weeks, or about 1,000 per day.
Eli Crane, an Arizona U.S. representative whose 2nd congressional district includes portions of Maricopa and Pinal, counties that have experienced a steady inflow of illegal immigrants, is on the invasion’s front line. Noting that about 280 people on the FBI terrorist watch list have been apprehended at the border, Crane wrote in a “Newsweek” op-ed, “If you don’t think there are any lone wolves or terrorist cells that have come in through that wide open border, you’re a fool.”
To ignore the obvious risks that open borders present, and at the same time vigorously promote and magnanimously underwrite Ukraine’s defense of its border against Russia, insults all Americans, proving Biden’s contempt for Americans.
Copyright 2023 Joe Guzzardi, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Guzzardi is a Project for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.
