SAUNDERS: A president who doesn’t protect border vs. a governor who does

WASHINGTON — When a woman and two children drowned trying to swim across the Rio Grande at the southern border on Jan. 12, President Joe Biden’s administration saw a chance to throw some shade on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

For Team Biden, this wasn’t a tragic accident facilitated by a porous border. It was an opportunity to hit Republicans.

In December, you see, Abbott signed legislation to “help stop the tidal wave of illegal entry into Texas, add additional funding to build more border wall, and crack down on human smuggling.” This month, the Texas National Guard took over the area around Shelby Park, near the border town of Eagle Pass, to curb illegal border crossings. Border Patrol agents are boxed out.

When a governor wants to do a job a president isn’t doing well, something must be done.

U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar filed a brief about the three deaths that took a swipe at Abbott. “It is impossible to say what might have happened,” she wrote, “if Border Patrol had had its former access to the area.”

That is, it is impossible to say what might have happened, but easy to take a cheap shot.

Early stories suggested that the presence of the Texas National Guard in the region prevented U.S. Border Patrol agents from saving Victerma de la Sancha Cerros and the two children.

Forget the inherent danger in crossing the Rio Grande — and that it is especially reckless to do so with children. The Border Patrol reported 149 migrant deaths in the El Paso sector during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

And never mind that by Tuesday, the Biden administration had admitted in a Supreme Court filing that the three migrants had drowned before the Border Patrol was ever informed they were in trouble.

The House Oversight Committee held a hearing on border security Wednesday, so, of course, the Jan. 12 deaths were mentioned.

Rather than examine the consequences of record illegal border crossings, however, committee Democrats used the hearing to call pro-enforcement Republicans names.

“We are here today having a hearing, and the pro-life party does not want to talk about the fact that there was basically state-issued, or sanctioned, death at the Texas border,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, asserted in a classic attempt at misdirection.

Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., accused GOP members of “cruelty.”

Witness Tom Homan, who served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement under President Donald Trump, took offense.

Under Biden, Homan sees a system that encourages migrants to come to the United States illegally and lie about their circumstances to garner legal status under an asylum claim.

“The cartels sell the fact you can cross the border illegally, you get processed quickly, you get flown to the city of your choice at taxpayer dime, you’ll be put in a hotel and be taken care of. And even when you lose your case, you’re not going to be removed” because Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told ICE that unless you’re convicted of an aggravated felony or you’re a national security or public safety threat, “you’re not a target for arrest.”

The biggest benefactors: the criminal syndicates that have gotten rich trafficking drugs and people.

“Maybe if we prosecuted people, they stop bringing their children through that process,” Homan offered. “Maybe less people will die.”

Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.