How Joe Biden’s Immigration Policies Wage War On American Women

President Joe Biden spends a lot of time talking about his father and the brief period of his childhood he spent living in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Biden walked down memory lane again this month when Congress reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). “My dad would say the greatest sin of all, that anyone could commit was the abuse of power, and the cardinal sin was for a man to raise his hand to a woman or a child,” he reminisced.

Unfortunately, the Biden administration commits both of his dad’s cardinal sins. In its haste to avoid enforcing the law, the Biden administration has issued guidelines that make officials less likely to deport illegal immigrants guilty of domestic violence.

The official guidance comes in a memo from DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and essentially makes federal guidelines on the topic fuzzier. “Federal government officials have broad discretion to decide who should be subject to” removal proceedings, the memo states. While a “noncitizen who poses a current threat to public safety” is “a priority for apprehension and removal,” whether someone poses such a threat is “not to be determined according to bright lines or categories.”

One might think being accused of abusing women or children would create a sufficiently bright line, but the Biden administration’s guidance is not so bright. “The broader public interest is also material in determining whether to take enforcement action” against domestic abusers, Mayorkas wrote. “For example, a categorical determination that a domestic violence offense compels apprehension and removal could make victims of domestic violence more reluctant to report the offense conduct. The specific facts of a case should be determinative.”

As Perry Mason might say, “Objection: Calls for speculation!” How can any Border Patrol agent know whether removing an illegal immigrant “could” make someone “more reluctant” to report an abuser? Risk-averse government employees (a redundant phrase, to be sure) could simply stop deporting everyone who falls into this category.

This is far from a theoretical concern. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) noted that, in Fiscal Year 2020, “illegal immigrants administratively arrested by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations had the following convictions and charges related to domestic violence”:

• Sexual assault: 3,051 convictions, 1,334 charges
• Sex offenses generally: 4,184 convictions, 1,733 charges
• Family offenses: 2,336 convictions, 1,880 charges

Cornyn introduced an amendment to the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget that would call for the “detention and removal of aliens … convicted of crimes of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, or stalking, as those terms are defined [by] the Violence Against Women Act of 1994.”

The decision not to deport criminal aliens guilty of domestic violence puts the Biden administration to the Left of the Obama-Biden administration. In 2014, then-DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson issued his set of “Policies for the Apprehension, Detention and Removal of Undocumented Immigrants” — “The Johnson Memo” — which established tiers of offenses for deportation. After the most egregious offenders, such as those posing a threat to national security, Johnson prioritized “aliens convicted of a ‘significant misdemeanor,’ which for these purposes is an offense of domestic violence; sexual abuse or exploitation,” and crimes such as drug trafficking that inflict specific and measurable harms.

The policy also sets the Biden administration at odds with itself. Last June, Attorney General Merrick Garland made suffering from domestic violence grounds for foreigners to claim asylum in the United States. That indicates the Biden administration considers domestic violence an especially egregious crime — because it goes well beyond the controlling law, the Immigration and Nationality Act. The INA allows would-be immigrants to apply for asylum if they are persecuted based on their membership in a specific group: race, religion, nationality, social group, or political views. As sympathetic as domestic violence victims may be, they can likely find safety well short of moving to the United States — e.g., by moving to another house, another town, or a nation in closer geographic proximity than the U.S.

Similarly last July, the Biden administration — relying on the work of Vice President Kamala Harris as border czar — issued its “Strategy to Address the Root Causes of Migration in Central America.” The fifth pillar of Harris’ master plan to curtail illegal immigration reads: “Combating sexual, gender-based, and domestic violence.”

Certainly, Joe Biden has presented himself as an ardent defender of women. On the campaign trail, candidate Biden famously promised to keep “punching at” domestic violence. President Biden has boasted about writing the original Violence Against Women Act. Yet his administration has essentially created a safe harbor for domestic abusers, which is particularly troubling, since domestic abusers have a high recidivism rate. As many as 41% of abusers will be rearrested within two years.

“If Biden promised to protect victims of domestic violence in the United States, Garland removed limitations on asylum for victims of domestic violence abroad, and Obama and Johnson made alien domestic abusers a priority for ‘apprehension, detention, and removal,’ why is Mayorkas elliptically telling ICE officers not to go after aliens who engage in domestic violence?” asked Arthur. “I have no idea, but it is the sort of crime that ICE officers should be targeting.”

The Biden administration’s inversion of domestic violence priorities shows how Democrats have radicalized themselves on illegal immigration. Apparently in the Democrats’ world, the fact that these criminals committed immigration crimes erases their guilt for committing violent crimes.

The irony has likely not been lost that Democrats spent the 2012 and 2014 election cycles accusing Republicans of waging a “war on women.” Where are the feminist concerns over illegal immigrants exuding “toxic machismo”? Leftists’ silence calls into question their moral commitment and seriousness.

… Or it reveals their commitment to illegal immigration. President Biden already effectively ended deportations. He has since rescinded Title 42, which has allowed Border Patrol agents to repel more than half of all would-be illegal immigrants since the beginning of the Biden administration. Agents warn they find themselves overwhelmed and unable to secure the border. “This is by design,” said Senator James Lankford (R-OK) recently. “This is not accidental. The policies that have been put in place at the border are to encourage people to cross the border knowing full well they won’t actually be deported.”

Whatever Biden’s reasons, his administration has prioritized illegal immigration over the basic health and safety of women. His apparent indifference to their abuse, pain, and victimization shows the callous calculus guiding Democrats’ concerted effort to throw our borders open for their perceived political gain. But then, the one constant in Democrats’ reaction to rampant inflation, the harms caused by COVID-19 lockdowns, rising fentanyl overdoses, and the violent violation of women is elitist indifference.

The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member.

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases