Op-Ed: Who Built the Cages, Joe?

FILE PHOTO: A Mexican federal police member stands guard near the U.S.-Mexico border in 2019
FILE PHOTO: A Mexican federal police member stands guard during the visit of then-U.S. President Donald Trump to Calexico, California, as seen in Mexicali, Mexico April 5, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso/File Photo

For over a year, Americans have not been allowed to go to work, travel, or bury their parents for the fear of spreading COVID, but President Biden believes opening the borders is too important for a global pandemic to get in the way. After all, another amnesty will mean Texas, Florida and most other “purple” states will permanently become blue, making it impossible for Republicans to ever take the White House again. So how can a global pandemic stand in the way of opening our borders?

Those illegally crossing the border are being packed into the facilities that Biden inherited from Trump, who inherited them from Obama. Where is the media, who were crying “kids in cages” and “concentration camps” for four years? 

Biden campaigned heavily on free citizenship for all, creating a surge in border-crossings the minute he took office, knowing there would not be enough space to hold everyone. He instructed border police to just let everyone into the country, without so much as requiring a Covid test. It’s harder for New Yorkers to get back into the state after vacation, as they are held at the airport until they fill out invasive paperwork and pledge to quarantine for two weeks upon return.

Customs and Border Protection is not testing for COVID. However, children are being tested when they are transferred to sites run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the Department of Health and Human Services. In Carrizo Springs, Texas, of 766 children who were tested in an HHS facility, 108 tested positive for Covid.

American cities close to the border are suffering the consequences. The Biden administration has made it clear that the optics of accepting as many new immigrants as possible is more valuable than protecting public health, even during a pandemic. Gila Bend, AZ Mayor Chris Riggs declared a state of emergency last week. “We are a town that has no resources, very limited funding, and they expect us to take control of everything and we just don’t have the personnel, the money.”

Although the Biden administration hasn’t provided affected American cities with resources to combat the virus, it has been careful to refuse access to journalists wishing to tour border patrol facilities and report on the situation. 

Last week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) organized a group of more than a dozen Senators to visit the border and see it for themselves. Their request to bring reporters was denied by the border patrol, due to its alleged concern over COVID. Meanwhile, the children in these facilities are densely packed into rooms, sleeping on the floor. 

The group of senators took out their cell phones to capture the scenes on their own. Halfway through the tour, a woman (later revealed to be the senior advisor to the commissioner of Customs and Border Control) was sent out to yell at the group and make them stop taking pictures under the guise of “it’s disrespectful”.

It must look pretty bad inside for the White House to try to censor the American people from learning the truth. Who built those cages, Joe? 

Inna Vernikov is a New York City attorney and a candidate for the City Council’s 48th District in Brooklyn covering the neighborhoods of Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach, Sheepshead Bay, Gravesend, Kings Highway and parts of Midwood. Jackie Shafer, Media and Communications Director, Inna For Council 2021.

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