With absolutely no chance of it being published, this letter to the editor was submitted to the Washington Post, pointing to part of a unanimous federal appellate court decision that upheld the legality of the FBI’s terrorist watch list. For the second time in two weeks (read about the first here), a federal judge has spoken an obvious truth that America’s political left seemingly wishes to deny.
To the Editor:
In what admittedly is but a tangentially related federal case affirming the FBI’s legal authority to maintain a terrorist watch list, Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, writing for a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, spoke an obvious truth that the Biden administration and most congressional Democrats astonishingly wish to deny [“Judges rule that terror watch list is legal,” B8, Mr. 31].
“The government has had authority to regulate travel and control the border since the beginning of the nation,” wrote the judge. Duh.
Yet to hear President Biden and his congressional allies tell it, there really isn’t anything we can do about the tens of thousands of illegal migrants now bull-rushing our Southern border other than print more money to help Central American governments address the “root causes” that prompt this migration in the first place.
Contrary to sober-thinking judges and other taxpayers who understand we can’t possibly afford to accommodate the hundreds of millions of people around the world who’d love to move to the United States (despite the “systemic racism” they’d surely face when they get here), the progressive left doesn’t see wall-building, stricter asylum policies, an end to catch-and-release, a resumption of deportations or the elimination of welfare benefits for noncitizens as sensible options well within the government’s authority. Instead, they’re effectively throwing up their hands and waiving in all comers who someday, in a post-amnesty future, may be willing to hand over their blank mail-in ballots to so-called vote-harvesters on the Democrats’ payroll.
Darren McKinney, Washington, D.C.