No Law

…but merely convenience. Australia’s immigration ministry makes Australia a nation ruled by men and not by law.

Immigration Minister Alex Hawke made clear in court documents concerning his second revocation of Novak Djokovic’s entry visa that the law counts for nothing.

Hawke didn’t dispute Djokovic’s claim of a medical exemption from rules that travelers to Australia must be vaccinated against Covid-19…. Hawke, who canceled Djokovic’s visa on Friday, said allowing the player to stay could sway some Australians against getting vaccinated.

Additionally,

Hawke didn’t refute Djokovic’s contention that he posed a negligible health risk, documents showed.

In his separate visa cancelation notice, though, Hawke said,

His [Djokovic’s] presence in Australia, given his well-known stance on vaccination, creates a risk of strengthening the antivaccination sentiment of a minority of the Australian community[.]

Because government convenience is all that matters.

Australia isn’t the US, and Aussies can accept the style of governance they choose—or that gets imposed on them by the men and women in their government. That, though, does not make their decision to be ruled by men—a very hard choice to reverse—rather than by law any less foolish.

UPDATE: Australia’s federal court upheld Hawke’s order to revoke Djokovic’s visa and ordered the tennis star deported. The court’s reasoning was this:

Chief Justice James Allsop said the decision came down to whether Immigration Minister Ethan Hawke’s decision was “irrational or legally unreasonable.”
“It is no part of the function of the court to decide upon the merits or wisdom of the [government’s] decision,” Allsop explained.

That’s appropriate, as far as it goes. Court judges should rule on the legality of the matter, not interpose their own views of societal needs or their own feelz.

It doesn’t, though, detract from Hawke’s decision to act on his feelz and his views of government convenience being more important than law.

Rules Don’t Matter

The Progressive-Democrats want to toss inconvenient Senate rules so they can have anything they demand. And they’ve become very open about that.

A group of House Democrats, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D, NY) penned a letter urging the Senate’s Democratic leadership to ignore the Senate Parliamentarian ruling that a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants cannot be included in a budget reconciliation bill.

And from the letter,

We do understand that the Senate Parliamentarian has issued a memorandum dismissing—despite evidence to the contrary—the budgetary impact of providing a pathway to citizenship. But the role of the Parliamentarian is an advisory one, and the Parliamentarian’s opinion is not binding.

Never mind the carefully unsubstantiated claim of budgetary impact. Consider the demand that the Parliamentarian’s ruling be blithely ignored. It is an advisory ruling, but under Senate reconciliation ruling it is binding, and the Senate is bound by it.

Sure, the ruling can be overridden, but that capability is irrelevant, as the Progressive-Democrats know full well. Statutes are binding, also, as are Federal agency regulations, and statutes and regulations also can be overridden: by subsequent statute or regulation, by the issuing agency rescinding its regulation, by the courts overruling or striking altogether the statute or regulation.

But overrule it the damned thing, Progressive-Democrats demand; it’s inconvenient to their purpose.

Nor will such disregard be limited to immigration. They’ll move to ignore any Senate rule, any regulation, any statute that gets in their way.

The Progressive-Democrats, in their drive to “fundamentally transform our nation,” now are saying out loud that a Critical Item in their desired transformation is that we should no longer be a nation ruled by law, but a nation ruled by men and women—their men and women in particular.

Remember this next fall, and keep it firmly in mind for 2024.

No-Border Policy

Here are some of the illegal aliens that Co-Presidents Biden-Harris (D) and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (D) are allowing into our nation under their open- no-border policy:

  • 302 illegal alien sex offenders arrested as part of Operation SOAR (Sex Offender Arrest and Removal) but not deported
  • 24-year-old Honduran illegal alien who stabbed to death the father of a family in Florida that he was staying with after entering the country by claiming he was a 17-year-old
  • Ernesto Lopez Morales, an illegal alien from Guatemala, who was arrested after a hit-and-run that killed a 5-year-old girl
  • 13 people, including 10 Mexican citizens, who were killed in a highway crash when 25 were crammed into a Ford Expedition and it was struck by a tractor-trailer
  • Another SUV with 19 people in it that entered the US through the same hole in the border fence and caught fire. Everyone escaped, and they were arrested by Border Patrol—but not deported

It’s only going to get worse, too, as Border Czar Harris—the other half of that Presidency—continues to visit our nonborder (but she’s been to Europe, now) and to do nothing else regarding the matter or immigration generally, Biden continues to be oblivious (which is a redundancy where it concerns our nonborder), and Mayorkas continues to lie about our nonborder being somehow closed.

Some Results of Illegal Immigration

Here are some of those, just crossing our unprotected southern border.

  • 17,300 migrants illegally crossing our southern border, with prior convictions of other crimes, arrested. Up from 9,447 in fiscal 2020.
    • assault
    • battery
    • domestic violence
    • burglary
    • robbery
    • larceny
    • theft
    • fraud
    • DUI
    • homicide
    • manslaughter
    • illegal drug possession and trafficking
    • illegal reentry
    • illegal weapons possession and transport
    • sex offenses
  • additional 8,979 migrants arrested with outstanding arrest warrants against them from other law enforcement agencies
  • 27% of arrestees were repeat offenders previously caught in the same fiscal year

Sheriff Joe Martinez, of Val Verde County, Texas:

What’s scary…we don’t know where they [the got-aways] are going. How many were from terrorist groups from special interest countries?
That’s the unknown.

Indeed. But the Biden-Harris administration cares not a fig about any of this.

Nor is it just this flood of illegal aliens who also are seriously violent criminals.

Outgoing DEA El Paso Division Chief Kyle Williamson:

It’s the worst it’s ever been. There’s no good news here. And the amount of methamphetamine and fentanyl coming in right now is unprecedented.

From the DEA’s March National Drug Threat Assessment:

The violence, intimidation, theft, and financial crimes carried out by [Mexican] TCOs [Transnational Cartel Organizations], criminal groups, and violent gangs pose a significant threat to our nation. The criminal activities of these organizations operating in the United States extend well beyond drug trafficking and have a profoundly negative impact on the safety and security of US citizens. Their involvement in alien smuggling, firearms trafficking, and public corruption, coupled with the high levels of violence that result from these criminal endeavors, poses serious homeland security threats and public safety concerns.

The Biden-Harris administration cares not a fig about any of this, either.

Aside: Just the News refers to these as “migrants.” They are not. They are illegal aliens. Full stop. It’s sad that JtN has allowed itself to get so infected with political correctness.

Biden-Harris Deliberate Lawlessness

This time, it’s through zir’s Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas. Under the latest bit of lawlessness, Mayorkas has ordered his department’s enforcement arms to ignore existing law and not go after illegal aliens in these locations:

  • Schools, including pre-schools, primary and secondary schools, vocational or trade schools, and colleges and universities
  • Medical or mental healthcare facilities, like hospitals, doctors’ offices, health clinics, vaccination or testing sites, urgent care centers, sites that serve pregnant individuals, or community health centers
  • Houses of worship or religious studies and places where children gather, like playgrounds, recreation centers, childcare centers, before- or after-school care centers, foster care facilities, group homes for children, or school bus stops
  • Social services establishments, like crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, victims’ services centers, child advocacy centers, supervised visitation centers, family justice centers, community-based organizations, facilities that serve the disabled, homeless shelters, drug or alcohol counseling and treatment facilities, or food banks or other establishments that distribute food or other essentials of life to people in need
  • Places where disaster or emergency response and relief are provided, including along evacuation routes, where shelter or emergency supplies, food, or water are being distributed, or registration for disaster-related assistance or family reunification is underway
  • Places where funerals or other religious or civil ceremonies or observances occur, as well as ongoing parades, demonstrations, or rallies

These areas are the new Progressive-Democrat sanctuaries, within which enforcing immigration law is…illegal.

This is on top of Mayorkas’ prior lawlessness:

The fact an individual is a removable noncitizen therefore should not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them[.]

After all, just because someone is breaking the law, that’s no reason to go and arrest them. C’mon, man.