Here in Washington, our leaders spent the week focused on the Middle East, on Iran. But out there and the rest of the country, there are plenty of more pressing concerns -- tangible concerns.

For example, many of our cities are starting to fail. Infrastructure is aging; both crime and the cost of living are surging, and left-wing prosecutors have stopped enforcing the law.

MOTHER OF SLAIN CALIFORNIA WOMAN ACCUSES OAKLAND MAYOR OF PROTECTING SUSPECT, AN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT

But for the leading Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden of Delaware, none of these problems matches what he believes is the greatest crisis of all -- America isn't importing enough desperately poor people. That's his position.

In a tweet on January 5, Biden lashed out at President Trump for his immigration policies: "Our Statue of Liberty invites in the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Donald Trump has slammed the door in the face of families fleeing persecution and violence." What a moralizer that Joe Biden is.

Just a few months ago, Biden vowed that when he becomes president he'll admit two million poor immigrants overnight, and then increase that number from there.

Joe Biden, 2020 presidential candidate and former vice president: We could afford to take in a heartbeat another two million people. The idea that a country of 330 million people cannot absorb people who are in desperate need and who are justifiably fleeing oppression is absolutely bizarre. Absolutely bizarre.

I would also move to increase the total number of immigrants able to come to the United States.

How many of those immigrants will be staying at Joe Biden's house? At Joe Biden's expense? Zero. Of course, Biden's view is that our chief mission as a nation is to admit as many poor people as we can possibly can.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE OPINION NEWSLETTER

The less impressive their country of origin, the less they're able to contribute to this country, the more we want them. You are rich, they are poor, therefore you must give them money, the right to vote, a permanent home. And once you've done that, then repeat it.

Biden claims that's our moral duty, and that Donald Trump and anyone else who shirks that duty is a racist. But is Trump shirking that duty? Is the basic claim even true? It's worth assessing. There is so much lying.

So once again, we go to the numbers, and here's what they are. From October 2018 to September 2019, the Border Patrol apprehended 977,000 people at the U.S.-Mexico border. That's the highest total in more than a decade and more than the previous two years combined.

Helping American citizens stopped being the point a long time ago. The point is getting reelected and feeling virtuous.

Now keep in mind that's just the people being caught at the southern border. Many more are getting through without being caught, of course, and then there are the tens or hundreds of thousands of others who enter legally but then overstay their visas. These illegal immigrants are tethering themselves here with millions of anchor babies. It's not a talking point. It's a fact.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, for example, 372,000 children of illegal aliens were born in this country just last year. Every one of them is now an American citizen, and their parents are benefiting from a whole suite of benefits -- food stamps, Medicaid, other programs. And, of course, they won't be deported now.

Wonder how we got 22 million illegal immigrants? That's how.

So by any actual measure, by the data, illegal immigration is worse than it has been in a long time.

But for Joe Biden, it's still not enough. 22 million illegals? Why not 30 million or 50 million? And every one of them gets free health care paid for by you. That's his promise.

Is your country really so spectacularly rich that we can afford this? And, of course, you know the answer. We're not a rich country. We are more than $20 trillion in debt.

Our middle class is dying, in part because immigrants are willing to work for less and have driven down wages. -- This doesn't make the immigrants bad. They're coming from incredibly poor places with totally different standards of living. But it's an economic fact that when you flood the labor pool with people willing to work for less, wages go down. And that's been going on for decades.

Not surprisingly, America's most immigrant-heavy state, California, is also the most impoverished. Many people born in California can't leave quickly enough. Just ask Idaho and Texas.

But Joe Biden says we need more. According to Biden, our country is a sanctuary -- must be a sanctuary -- for those fleeing violence. But because Joe Biden knows nothing, he is not aware that some of America's cities are deadlier than the places those people are fleeing from.

For example, El Salvador. One-third of all living El Salvadorans live in this country now. But here are the numbers: El Salvador has 50 murders per 100,00 people. Last year, Baltimore -- not a country, the city in Maryland -- Baltimore had 51 per 100,00. In other words, it is more dangerous than El Salvador.

Baltimore clearly hasn't benefited -- at all -- from America's policy of unlimited immigration. But you know, none of this matters because for people like Joe Biden and the rest of this country's ruling class.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Helping American citizens stopped being the point a long time ago. The point is getting reelected and feeling virtuous.

Adapted from Tucker Carlson's monologue from "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Jan. 9, 2020.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM TUCKER CARLSON