Who’s really playing politics on immigration?

I think Robert Meale got it wrong in his letter in the April 20 Your Views titled, “Biden Plays Politics with Immigration.” For starters, the term “open borders” is somewhat of a misnomer. Higher arrest numbers for attempted illegal entry show only that more people are coming. The fact that they’re being arrested means they’re not getting in without any vetting. The vast majority of migrants undergo processing by U.S. border officials before being allowed into the country, after which they remain here legally, pending formal hearings. Many are turned away. In fiscal year 2023, according to the CBO, over 1.1 million migrants were turned away at the border — the most since 1980.

Vetting, as Mr. Meale correctly points out, is not as rigorous as when his father came through Ellis Island. However, in its 62-year history, Ellis Island handled a total of 12 million immigrants, an average of 200,000 per year. In fiscal year 2023 alone, there were nearly 2.5 million southern border encounters and 1.2 million so far in FY 2024. And it’s true that processing currently takes years in our underfunded, understaffed courts. The system clearly is overwhelmed and needs fixing.

But Joe Biden didn’t create this problem. Congress’ failure to act over multiple Democrat and Republican administrations did. They recently came close with a bipartisan bill (which Biden supported) that would have given the GOP members much of what they wanted, including beefing-up border security and shortening processing times from years to months.

With support from both sides of the aisle, it had a good chance of passing, but candidate Trump, afraid of losing his main election fear-mongering card, issued an order to kill the perfectly good bill and his Republican speaker of the House followed orders. So, who’s really playing politics with immigration?

Bob Dohn

Hoffman Estates