Pritzker’s Myopia Ignores Open Borders

Written by David E. Smith

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is back in front of his liberal friends in the news media to complain about the immigration crisis, which is trickling up to the Midwest.

As you may remember, Pritzker sent an open letter to President Joe Biden three months ago begging for federal tax resources to deal with the so-called “asylum seekers” being bussed to Illinois from Texas. Not once in this three-page appeal did he ask the administration to shut down the border or reinstate the quasi-successful “Remain in Mexico” policy of the Trump Administration.

According to a CBS News report, Chicago “has received more than 33,000” immigrants recently… which accounts for just a fraction of the number that have invaded Texas over the past few years.

This month, Pritzker paid the Austin American-Statesman newspaper to publish another open letter, this one addressed to Texas Governor Greg Abbot. Taking advantage of the freezing temperatures of a typical Illinois winter, Pritzker pleads for mercy, pointing out that many immigrant lives are vulnerable to the cold weather. Ironically, Texas is also facing a wintry artic blast. In fact, residents of Austin, Texas have been dealing with low temperatures in the teens.

In the 430-word open letter in the Texas newspaper, Pritzker self-righteously tells Gov. Abbot that he refuses “to play your political game,” and then criticizes Abbot for failing to work “on bipartisan solutions to the border crisis.”

Ironically, not one word was written in this open letter or the October letter to President Joe Biden about the critical need to secure the borders and regain some semblance of order. Wouldn’t it be nice to see an open letter in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post or USA Today in which Pritzker could appeal to the Biden Administration for this end?

And while Pritzker laments the migrant lives at stake because of the season’s “dangerous winter storm and subzero temperatures,” there is not one mention of the tens of thousands of American lives being destroyed by fentanyl and other deadly drugs flowing in to the nation and up to our cities through an open border every year.

Nor is he doing anything about the Democratic-sponsored bills to legalize magic mushrooms and decriminalize small amounts of several dangerous Schedule 1 drugs. As his own Party continues its move to increase the use and sale of mind-altering and soul-destroying drugs in Illinois, he remains silent about the dire repercussions for families and the communities in which they live.

If Gov. Pritzker were truly serious about this crisis, he would stop gaslighting the people of Illinois and take his own advice about being bipartisan. He would speak out about the dangers of open borders and the failure of the executive branch to uphold our federal immigration laws to protect the citizens of this great nation — especially  those who live in states like Texas. Those poor people are taking the full brunt of these consequences.