Philosophizing disgrace

The Biden administration’s erasure of our southern border sets the backdrop to “The lonesome death of Bishop Evans.” As Victor Hanson put it in his recent column on our descent to la la land: “The once secure border of 2020 vanished. Two-million people have crossed the southern border illegally in the last 12 months. Millions more are on the way. The Biden Administration unilaterally and simply destroyed existing immigration law.”

It was a FOX News reporter — Jacqui Heinrich — who posed the question about Specialist Evans’s death to the psychedelic Jen Psaki at yesterday’s White House press briefing (transcript here). Heinrich asked:

Q Does the White House feel any responsibility for Evans’s death, given that there’s reporting that he lost his life allegedly trying to save two migrants who were smuggling drugs? This is a problem that, you know, the administration has been facing for some time and is obviously, as we’ve been discussing, getting some criticism on. Is — does the White House feel at all responsible? And what — what more can you offer to people who, you know, are on the border, in border communities, who are experiencing loss and trials like this?

Psaki sidestepped the question to “philosophize disgrace,” as Dylan puts it in “Hattie Carroll”:

Well, of course, we are mourning the loss of his life and we are grateful for the work of every National Guardsman. I would note that the National Guard worked for the states, and so he is an employee of the Tex- — Texas National Guard, and his efforts and his operation were directed by there, not by the federal government, in this — in this effort, in this apparatus.

We’ve — we’ve long stated that our immigration system is broken. There needs to be more done to invest in smarter security, to have a more effective asylum processing system. And we would welcome any efforts to — for any elected officials to work with us on that.

The exchange continued:

Q A lot of the border communities often, you know, say that they have requested more from — from the federal government — more manpower to help manage these kinds of — these kinds of issues. Is that being looked at? Is that being — is that being —

MS. PSAKI: Can you give me a more specific request or a specific person or —

Q Well, you mentioned that, you know, this — this Specialist was a National Guard. Obviously, you know, the state is in charge of that. States are in charge of that. But there have been requests from the Texas governor, from — you know, to send more — you know, to help people who are in this position at the border, who are now trying to deal with an influx of migrants that they know is going to only increase, as you just mentioned, after Title 42 is lifted.

You talked about having a humanitarian, you know, sort of, system in place to deal with people coming across and increase vaccinations and that kind of thing. But in terms of, you know, law enforcement presence at the border.

MS. PSAKI: Well, I would just say — if we just dial it back a few years to, kind of, what we inherited here — the former President invested billions of dollars in a border wall that was never going to work or be effective, instead of working towards comprehensive immigration reform.

As part of the President’s proposal he put forward on his first day in office, he proposed investing in smarter security at the border — something he’d be happy to work with governors on. And — and certainly we’re open to having that conversation whenever they’re ready to do that.

Returning to Victor Hanson’s recent column, we conclude with this observation: “Biden has no solutions to these self-created problems because of the ideological restraints the Left has imposed on him….[W]hen people object, this administration answers either by blaming others for its self-created mess or by seeking distractions.”

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