No, the border is not closed and other commentary

Ex-ICE boss: No, the Border Is Not Closed

Despite what Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas claims, “the border is not closed, and it is not secure,” declares former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan at FoxNews.com. Mayorkas pretends President Biden isn’t to blame for the “surge of ­migrants across our border,” but he is “hiding the real truth.” For example, Biden’s team claims it’s “adhering to the law” in order to give immigrants due process on asylum — but then it ignores “the final decisions of that very same due process.” Most important, when you make promises of ­deportation moratoriums and free health care, “thousands of unaccompanied children” and “large family groups” are sure to come. The result: a humanitarian and “national-security crisis.”

Media watch: Libel Law Harms Democracy

The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway cites a judge’s “blistering dissent” in a recent defamation case, in which he warned of the dangers of control of major media by one political party. The New York Times and The Washington Post “are virtually Democratic Party broadsheets,” fumed Judge Laurence Silberman of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. Most large US papers and Silicon Valley also lean that way, as does “nearly all television.” As a result, libelous stories mainly harm Republicans, which is why, he concluded, the Supreme Court should revisit its standard for libel: “When the media has proven its willingness — if not eagerness — to so distort, it is a profound mistake to stand by unjustified legal rules that serve only to enhance the press’ power.”

Conservative: Dems Want the Migrant Surge

President Biden has tried to blame the previous administration for the crisis at the southern border — yet The Chicago Tribune’s John Kass ­recalls that way back in September 2019, Biden encouraged migrants to come: “If you want to flee and you’re fleeing oppression, you should come,” said Biden — and come they did, “wearing T-shirts reading, ‘Biden, please let us in.’ ” The new president “began to unravel and end a Trump-administration policy that kept the border contained” as soon as he took office, and all “Democrats see in this surge is a wave of potential new Democratic voters.” It turns out that this “planned disaster” of “porous borders and a surge of the desperate” is “all policy, not coincidence. There are no coincidences in politics.”

Albany watch: Cuomo’s Successor?

Gov. Cuomo is in trouble, observes National Review’s Dan McLaughlin, and “unlike presidents, governors are not so impossible to oust” — with state chief executives in Missouri, Alabama and Oregon booted from office in recent years. As ­Cuomo wobbles, attention turns to Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who would take over, triggering a “mad scramble” for the 2022 race. Yet there “is no guarantee that she would be able to avoid a fractious primary challenge. . . . In fact, in 2018, Hochul faced a stiff progressive primary challenge of her own for the lieutenant governorship from New York City councilman Jumaane Williams.” She is no moderate, let alone conservative, but rather “a Cuomo- or [Sen. Chuck] Schumer-style liberal.” Still, her mild gestures at cultural conservatism may be enough to “get her run out of the party today.”

Culture critic: Wokesters Aim To Cancel ‘Intent’

“Revolutionaries” are “devouring their own over issues of race,” argues Commentary’s Christine Rosen. And with “each cancellation, we have further proof that context, intent and nuance are the enemies of the ideologue.” Alexi McCammond, “a young black reporter” chosen as Teen Vogue’s new editor, was fired “when disgruntled staffers found anti-Asian and homophobic tweets” she had posted in college. And San Francisco Board of Education official Alison Collins, also black, is being removed over her own anti-Asian tweets. They both “pleaded for the public to consider the intent of their words,” but “anyone with authoritarian tendencies has a stake in undermining intent” as a defense for “accusations of racism.” Those who “use spurious allegations of racism” to accrue power see intent and “context as the enemy.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board