For one thing, the border was, for all intents and purposes, one of the leading issues that landed former president Trump in the White House in 2016 in the first place. It was a key component of Trump's entire campaign.
Yet, President Joe Biden, among a host of other things, in the first hours of his taking the oath of office, saw fit to reverse nearly all of President Trump's border policies, cease construction of the wall, and essentially send a message to Mexican nationals, "The border is open. Come one, come all."
The problem is that it created a massive border crisis worse than any border issues we faced long before Trump was ever in office.
Perhaps the Biden Administration simply didn't see the damage coming? Or did they somehow think it would not become the problem it is? It's hard to say exactly what they thought was going to happen, but clearly it became a much bigger problem than, I think, behind closed doors they would acknowledge now is a huge problem.
And one that they would rather not have to deal with in an election year. But deal with it they must, even if the reality is, that despite acknowledging it is a problem, they don't see it as a problem for America. They see it as a problem for winning an election.
The fact is, the Democrats simply have no interest in really doing anything at all about fixing the border crisis. But they sure want to look like they are concerned. That's why they tried to introduce a border bill—one that they can hang around the necks of Republicans to make it look like Republicans, and even Trump himself, are simply using the border issue to win points for the reelection of Trump.
The Democrats know two things. The American people won't bother to read the bill and understand what it does or doesn't do, and the media won't report on the bill according to its actual contents, but rather will report on the Republican's dismissal of the bill.
It is something they can use, ultimately, to try and make it appear that the Republican's interests in securing the border are just smoke and mirrors.
The Biden Administration has quickly tried to tell the American people that he cannot act on the border issue without the aid of Congress. A statement that is patently false. Just as quickly as Biden reversed Trump's border policies, he could turn around and put them back into place through the same executive actions he used to create the mess.
Not to mention the fact that the powers that Biden has according to laws already on the books are exactly the same powers to close the border as Obama and Trump had when they were in the White House. The real game of smoke and mirrors is being played by Biden himself and the Democrat party.
The Republican's rejection of the so-called bipartisan border bill is something the Democrats can take to voters and say, "See, they really don't want to secure the border."
But that's not the case at all. Of course we know that. But does everyone else? Because in conversation after conversation about the border issue that's the one thing thrown in the face of any conservative who argues we need to do something to fix the issue.
"We gave you the opportunity to do that and you said no just because it would give Biden a win that Trump and his supporters don't want him to have."
It's just not true, is the problem here. It's not about what the bill is called. It's not about what the Democrats say the bill does. It's about what the bill actually does and doesn't do, and the one huge thing it doesn't do is actually secure the border.
Sure, the bill may provide Biden funding for 1,300 border patrol agents, 1,600 asylum officers and 375 immigration judges. But what about the asylum system that's broken? And what about the authority to shut down the border being discretionary?
These are important factors voters need to be aware of.
For one thing, provisions in the bill wouldn't even become possible to do anything until inadmissible immigrant encounters reached numbers totaling more than 4,000 to 5,000 over a 7-day average. That piece is strategic, mind you, in the bill, considering that the averages now are between 4,000 and 5,000. So essentially that piece alone makes the bill worthless.
If the bill's aim was to close the border and solve the issue, that provision would not be in it at all. Essentially what it allows the administration to do is to catch and release somewhere around 2 million illegals a year with no authority to stop it unless the numbers surpassed that.
That is insanity, by the way.
All in all, I think voters need to be more aware of what is actually in the bill itself and the media should do its job to explain that. The Republicans are attempting to explain it, but of course there are limits to what the media will disseminate to the public regarding their opposing statements and reasoning behind not wanting to pass the bill.
As Senator Ted Cruz put it, "It's a way for Democrats running in elections to say I wanted to secure the border, but those mean Republicans won't let me."
Democrats aren't going to sway from their idea that the border bill Biden wants secures the border. So, the ones who need to know and hear the message are the independent voters. The good news is that I think they are, in fact, getting the message as polls continue to show that most voters believe Trump is better equipped to handle the border than Biden is.
Either way, the insistence by Democrats that the bill proposed is the answer Republicans don't want to hear is more than a little bit annoying. Because we know it isn't the right answer, and the one that is, is already sitting on President Biden's desk.
He can close the border practically overnight with a signature.
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