Europe’s Elites Respond To Immigration Backlash. But Our Ruling Class Won’t Listen
10/18/2021
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European leaders learned an important lesson from the 2015 “migrant” crisis: People hate Open Borders. In response to the current crisis, the Euro Establishment has reacted much differently. Leaders are calling for fortified walls, expulsions, and a firm no to “migrant” incursions. Even European Leftists don’t want to repeat the same mistake. Contrast that with our Ruling Class. They see hordes pouring across the border—and demand we make things easier for them. Republicans have shown some improvement on immigration over the previous decade (although even Republicans agreed with importing unvetted Afghan “refugees") but they’re not in charge. The Democrats are, and they’re fanatically committed to Electing A New People.

Europe’s leaders now just aren’t. While many still condemn immigration criticism as “hate speech” and claim nationalism gravely threatens “democracy,” they clearly understand immigration must be contained. Recently, the interior ministers of Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, and Slovakia signed a joint letter that called upon the European Union to finance the construction of border walls [Dozen ministers want EU to finance border walls, by Nikolaj Nielsen, EU Observer, October 8, 2021]. And Poland says it will build one on its own along its border with Belarus, which the EU accuses of weaponizing illegal immigrants to retaliate over sanctions [The EU accuses Belarus of luring global migrants into other European countries, by Rob Schmitz, NPR, October 12, 2021].

Europe is also fortifying its boundaries with the Middle East and North Africa. Unlike in 2015, when several leaders were thrilled with Syrian “refugees,” now European leaders are visibly less enthusiastic about the expected wave of Afghans. EU member states have made no new pledges to take in more Afghans in two months [EU Offers No New Pledges to Take in Afghan Refugees, by Laurence Norman, Wall Street Journal, October 7, 2021]. Greece completed and fortified its wall along its border with Turkey. Several Western European countries—Austria, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece and Germany—want rejected Afghan asylum seekers deported [As Afghanistan crisis worsens, Europe adopts less welcoming stance towards refugees, by Haley Ott, CBS News, September 13, 2021].

That so many Afghans are rapists and criminals might explain this sudden reluctance [I’ve Worked with Refugees for Decades. Europe's Afghan Crime Wave Is Mind-Boggling, by Cheryl Bernard, National Interest, July 11, 2017]. But whatever the reason, one thing is clear: EU leaders see mass immigration as a concern rather than a blessing.

Take France. French President Emmanuel Macron was elected as a moderate leftist who promised to crush nationalism. But in power, he’s stolen ideas from the nationalists. This is particularly apparent on immigration. In August, Macron said the continent must “protect itself from significant waves of illegal migrants” coming from Afghanistan [Macron Says Europe Must ‘Protect Itself’ From Wave of Afghan Migrants, by Joanna York, The Connexion, August 17, 2021]. He cut down on visas from North African countries to punish them for refusing to take back deportees [France cuts back on visas granted to Maghreb nationals over immigration policy, Reuters, September 28, 2021]. He cracked down on migrant camps and sought to deny government assistance to recent arrivals [France Announces Tough New Measures on Immigration, by Norimitsu Onishi, New York Times, November 6, 2019]. He is also aggressively combatting radical Islam in the country and deporting dozens of known extremists.

Macron moved right on the issue because France has moved right. In the upcoming April 2022 presidential election, three popular candidates are even more staunch than he is. The nationalist Marine Le Pen promises an immigration referendum that will restrict citizenship and government benefits for foreigners [France's Le Pen proposes referendum on immigration if elected president, Reuters, September 27, 2021]. The center-right Republicans would place an annual immigration cap to dramatically reduce the nation’s foreign intake; their possible nominee, Michel Barnier, has actually called for an immigration moratorium [French Right Pledges Immigration Cap in Bid to Unseat Macron, by Tim Stickings, The National, September 6, 2021]. Potential dark horse candidate Eric Zemmour, a TV commentator, openly discusses the Great Replacement and says immigration is a tool to wipe out France’s native white population. All three fare well in the polls, with the latest poll showing Le Pen with 16 percent support, Zemmour with 14 percent, and the likely Republican candidate with 12 percent. Macron leads the pack at 26 percent. The Left doesn’t figure in the top four. Based on this poll, 68 percent of Frenchmen want immigration restrictions. The only question is how far they want them to go.

France isn’t alone. Common sense is prevailing elsewhere. Denmark’s center-left government plans to tighten immigration and crack down on “non-Western” neighborhoods. These plans earn wide approval from across the political spectrum. “For me, it is becoming increasingly clear that the price of unregulated globalization, mass immigration and the free movement of labor is paid by the lower classes,” PM Mette Frederiksen, a Social Democrat, wrote in 2019 [Why Denmark’s Immigrants Are Losing Hope of Ever Becoming Citizens, by Richard Orange, The Telegraph, February 21, 2021].

Of course, some idiotic leaders continue to promote mass immigration. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier fawned over immigrants last month and claimed they’re the real reason his nation is great [Germany ‘Unimaginable’ Without Immigrants, Says President Steinmeier, Agence France-Presse, September 10, 2021]. But generally the political elites seem to have realized that Open Borders is a problem and hope to appease nationalist voters and the nationalist governments in Eastern Europe.

But America’s political elites remain impervious. Not a single Democrat stands against party dogma.

Let’s review the Biden administration’s actions on immigration:

Ended Remain in Mexico, which kept out problematic “asylum seekers.” (The courts forced the regime to restore this policy.)

  • Ended asylum agreements with Central American nations that ensured illegal aliens would stay there.
  • Took ICE agents off street duty and dramatically reduced their role.
  • Ceased the border wall.
  • Reinstated catch-and-release and often doesn’t even assign court dates to apprehended illegals.
  • Announced all illegals not deemed violent criminals are safe from deportation.
  • Dramatically increased the proposed refugee intake.
  • Undermined the Border Patrol through bad policies and restrictions.
  • Endorsed Amnesty and other incentives to lure more illegals to the country.

And Biden’s own party wants him to go even farther by eliminating enforcement. Faced with a horde of Haitian “migrants” at the border, Democrats demanded Biden eliminate one of the few security mechanisms remaining: Title 42, which allows officials to expedite deportations to safeguard against COVID-19. Many Democratic lawmakers also wanted the Haitians to stay here, further underscoring how deranged the party is about immigration. But Biden listened. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, himself a Jewish immigrant from Cuba, dumped almost 15,000 into the country.

But these policies are just as unpopular with Americans as they are in Europe. Just 35 percent of Americans approve of Biden’s immigration actions [Biden’s approval slumps after a slew of crises, Josh Boak and Emily Swanson, Associated Press, October 1, 2021].

Nevertheless, Democrats are still beholden to ethnic lobbies. who demand more of themselves. The entire Democrat political strategy now depends on replacing the Historic American nation. Moreover, many have genuinely convinced themselves that immigration enforcement is immoral and, incredibly, un-American.

Republicans are a different story. Many do understand that immigration will play well in the 2022 midterm elections. As I’ve previously noted , no Republican now openly supports the kind of broad Amnesty that party leaders endorsed in 2013. Every Republican opposes Biden’s “comprehensive” Amnesty bill and the Democrats’ plans for a sneak Amnesty in the budget reconciliation bill. This is a marked improvement over the pre-Trump GOP.

But one difference between Republicans and especially the Eastern European nationalists: the European nationalists are proactive. They began building walls and refusing “migrants” despite the EU’s commands. Republican governors are too timid to do this. Thus Texas Gov. Greg Abbott backed away from closing ports of entry over the Haitian migrant flood, and begs the feds to let him enforce immigration law. Biden, of course, says no.

Yet proactive policies could probably force the federal government to act more sensibly on immigration. Washington DC does not want states to usurp its authority and would be more inclined to do something if states took over enforcement. In any case, GOP-led states acting on their own would be preferable to the present chaos. It would at least throw up a roadblock against the illegal influx.

And note another difference between Eastern European nationalists and Republicans: refugees. Poland and Hungary say no to them, Republicans say “welcome!” Pretty much every Republican governor said he wanted Afghan refugees; GOP senators attacked Biden for not getting enough migrants out of the doomed country in August. Senators Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Mitch McConnell said Afghans could live in their neighborhoods. Texas Senator John Cornyn recently said that Texans had a “moral obligation” to import Afghans, apparently ignorant of the fact that they could have been far more efficiently settled amid neighboring ethnics in Central Asia, and actually repeated the long-discredited immigration enthusiast cliché that “the U.S. has always been a nation of immigrants” [GOP Sen. Cornyn: Texans 'Have a Moral Obligation' to Resettle Afghans, Breitbart, October 18, 2021].

So improvement regardless, Republicans still have a long way to go.

In the Old World, politicians are listening to the people. In America, they’re still listening to ethnic interest groups and the Cheap Labor lobby.

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