Immigration theater
We’ve long wondered how low the Party of Lincoln can sink? Now we know.
Republicans are running away from a bipartisan immigration deal that contains much of much they have long demanded to enforce border security. Instead, the House GOP is moving to impeach Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas for, wait for it, failing to control the border.
All hail the craven cynicism of the Grifters, Obstructionists and Perjurers Party and its orange-skinned leader.
We’ve long known Republicans say they want an immigration bill but when something tangible appears in writing they behave exactly like Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown.
Instead, they excel at political theater: Ron DeSantis picking up migrants in Texas and sending them to Martha’s Vineyard with a fuel stop in Florida, so the state’s taxpayers can foot the bill.
Then there’s Texas Governor Greg Abbott sending busloads of migrants northward without winter clothing, or installing razor wire in the Rio Grande.
Abbott has gone one step further, mimicking George Wallace standing in the Alabama schoolhouse door, and is defying a Supreme Court order to eliminate another razor wire barrier in Eagle Pass, Texas.
It’s all performative art at the behest of the twice-impeached, four-times indicted, six-time bankrupt, found civilly liable for defamation and fraud man who pulls their strings with threats of political opposition. Quoth the Less-Than-Teflon Don:
“This Bill is a great gift to the Democrats, and a Death Wish for The Republican Party. It takes the HORRIBLE JOB the Democrats have done on Immigration and the Border, absolves them, and puts it all squarely on the shoulders of Republicans,” Trump continued. “Don’t be STUPID!!! We need a separate Border and Immigration bill. It should not be tied to foreign aid in any way, shape or form!”
You know like yanking babies from the arms of their mothers. Oops, that was Trump.
So what’s in this bill that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Trump Lackey, called “dead on arrival” before anyone knew what was in it? And is now likely to fail to get support from some of the Senate Republicans who helped to write it?
The package, that also includes aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, would implement strict limits along the southern border that were not previously written into law and would in practice severely curtail asylum.
And what’s the alternative being offered by Republicans? Impeaching the man who they tacitly acknowledge doesn’t have the right tools to enforce border security for not stopping the inflow of migrants.
Never mind that President Joe Biden has clearly stated that if given the bill, he would do what Republicans have long demanded — close the border if it becomes overwhelmed.
“What’s been negotiated would – if passed into law – be the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we’ve ever had in our country.
”It would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed. And if given that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill into law.”
The nakedly cynical impeachment move against Mayorkas is just another scene in the political theater that passes for policy action by a party hopelessly in the thrall of Trump.
And more concerned about their own political skins than what’s good for the country.