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June 7, 2024 Editor, The News-Gazette: I visit Lexington frequently to visit family members and enjoy the many delights of the area. And I recently read a column in your paper by Mr. Mike Lowry, concerning problems with our immigration system. I share Mr. Lowry’s urgent concerns about the need for action. However, I disagree with the idea that repeating widely discredited right-wing talking points helps in anyway.
It is untrue for instance, that under Biden, 10 million illegal aliens have flooded into our country. The latest data from the DHS show that “in the initial processing of millions of encounters, 2.5 million people have been released into the U.S. and 2.8 million have been removed or expelled.” And in fact, except for his first quarter in office, Biden released a lower percentage of those arrested than Trump did from October 2020 to December 2020.
Mr. Lowry complains about the halt in building Trump’s wall. He should read a study by the conservative think tank, the Cato Institute, which found that despite a temporary lull in migration during the early pandemic, the border patrol was making more arrests and witnessing far more successful crossings after the wall went up than in most months before. The wall was an ill-conceived waste of money.
Mr. Lowry also repeats the scaremongering claim that in recent months: “some 50,000 unvetted, primarily military-aged, males from Communist China have entered the country.” The U.S. Customs and Border Protection does not release specific age or gender data about immigrants at the border. There is no basis for his claim.
And finally, Lowry blames Democrats for the fact that a comprehensive immigration reform and security funding bill has not yet been passed. I totally agree with the proposition that we need more judges, bailiffs, attorneys, border staff and infrastructure. That’s why last year, a bipartisan comprehensive border security bill was crafted that included almost all of the provisions of Republican bill H.R. 2.
Unfortunately, Republicans in the House and Senate yielded to objections from Trump simply because his election prospects would be improved if no reform bill was forthcoming. So, no bill.
Facts matter. If our understanding of a problem is based on fiction, any solutions we craft will not be likely make things better. BARRY NOLAN Virginia Beach
