"Americans are very generous, and it's hard for us to turn down a student at the schoolhouse door if they present themselves to learn," Meg Kilgannon, the Family Research Council's senior fellow for education studies, said on Washington Watch Thursday.
That kindness and generosity, however, are coming at a cost for many local public schools as children, many in need of special services, flood their districts from countries their new classmates might struggle to find on a map.
President Joe Biden, who visited perhaps the lowest-trafficked area of the border at Brownsville, Texas, on Thursday, has his own brand of generosity and continues to extend entry into America to any non-citizen regardless of that person's intentions.
Border agent union head rips into Biden
National Border Patrol Council president Brandon Judd, appearing yesterday at Donald Trump's border visit to Eagle Pass, Texas, ripped into Biden.
Judd, using colorful language, expressed that agents are "absolutely mad that President Biden went to Brownsville, Texas, rather than going to Arizona, rather than going to San Diego, rather than coming to Eagle Pass, which has been the epicenter."
At least one member of the U.S. Senate has similar feelings.
"It's too little too late and to the wrong address," Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), also a Washington Watch guest, said Thursday. "He spent 50 years avoiding the border. He spent the first three years of his administration saying there was not a crisis, the border was secure – now all of a sudden, now that border security is the number-one issue with the American people, he decides to go there."
Biden reiterated his desire not to stop the flow of illegals into the country but to spend more for resources to cater to them once they arrive. He said his administration needs "more resources, more agents, more officers, more judges, more equipment in order for us to secure our border. Folks, it's time for us to move on this. We can't wait any longer."
Biden even assumed a kinder, gentler tone with Trump, calling on his chief adversary and all Republicans to lock arms and help him achieve his immigration goals. "Instead of playing politics with the issue, why don't we get together and get the job done," he said. Biden also pledged to get border agents more resources "come hell or high water."
Left unsaid, according to Blackburn, was the fact that Biden has constantly ignored their pleas for resources they say are necessary – not resources he prioritizes. Blackburn argued Biden's priorities for the border differ greatly from those of his predecessor.
"They need a barrier. Donald Trump listened to the Border Patrol. They said, 'We need a physical barrier, better technology and more officers and agents in order to secure the border.' Joe Biden, he's not going to give them a physical barrier because that would stop the flow of illegal immigration. What he continues to do is try to find ways to make illegal legal. He wants to make illegal immigration legal," Blackburn told show host Tony Perkins.
Biden can bring reform by himself
The Tennessee senator claimed Biden still has the same executive power to close the border that he used to open it.
"What we know, is that during his first 100 days in office he [signed] 94 executive actions and orders that opened the border and made our immigration laws weaker. We know Joe Biden's border policy is an open border; and we know regardless of how many laws are on the books, how many laws anyone would pass, he is not going to close that border," she said.
The news cycle has been dominated in recent days by the brutal death of Laken Riley, 22, a graduate nursing student in Athens, Ga., whose alleged killer is a known illegal immigrant, one who had already been arrested in the U.S. to boot.
Fentanyl is killing Americans too. Democrats may disagree, but it takes no giant leap of logic to connect Mexican drug cartels, an open border and increasing Fentanyl use. Many Republicans have made that leap.
The inattention to the drug problem is putting school children at risk, Kilgannon noted. In some places the problem has resulted in overdose emergencies, yet school officials have delayed or ignored notifying parents.
There were nine such instances in Loudoun County, Virginia, where nine students overdosed, and the district waited more than 20 days to notify parents. Gov. Glenn Youngkin last November issued an executive order requiring schools to notify parents of their student's overdose on school grounds within 24 hours, WHSV reported.
"You can't address this traumatic event with your kids if you don't know this has happened. The reason these kids are OD'ing at school is for one reason: there's poor control over the environment by the people who are running the schools.
"[At the same time] there's an increase in drugs coming across the border; there's more availability of these drugs. And it's causing all kinds of pressures to be put on many, many areas of our society, and of course it's happening to our school systems as well," Kilgannon said.
The law is the law
The influx of illegals as students has placed financial pressure on local districts that, though not life-threatening, is very real, Kilgannon said. Laws require these students to be enrolled in public schools.
"We can debate whether that's a good idea or not, but …," Kilgannon said, adding that many of the students arrive with pre-existing special needs.
"Then they need special needs services, and the strain this causes is that a lot of times these students settle in high-poverty areas – and the schools there are already under-funded. They're certainly not prepared to deliver the additional services these children will require to get them to be literate in English," said the FRC spokesperson.
"A lot of them come here, and regardless of their age, they're illiterate in their native language. They're often-times innumerate; they can't do math. A lot of remediation is required for these kids, and if we're going to teach them, it's a huge expense for the school system. And again, many times [this happens] where the school system is already not well-funded."
