Reasonable people can disagree about the complex causes of the immigration crisis on America’s southern border. But there isn’t much doubt about which party is trying to block a compromise to address it right now. As and Republicans Who Screamed About A Crisis On The Border Now Oppose A Plan To Fix It” at HuffPo:
For months, Republicans have shouted from the rooftops about a migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border and how President Joe Biden needs to act to address it, insisting the flow of migrants is an urgent national security threat.
Now many on the right are urging their party to reject the very same things they said were needed to fix the problem, including tougher enforcement measures and a proposal to automatically shut down border crossings when it is overwhelmed….
The GOP’s contortions aren’t just grating for Democrats but also on some conservative Republicans who have been deeply involved in crafting bipartisan legislation, which is expected to be unveiled soon, that would overhaul how migrants are processed at the border.
“It is interesting. Republicans four months ago… locked arms together and said, ‘We’re not going to give you money for this. We want a change in law,’” Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), the GOP’s lead negotiator on a deal pairing immigration changes with assistance to Ukraine and other allies, said on “Fox News Sunday.”….“A few months later, when we’re finally getting to the end, they’re like, ‘Oh, just kidding. I actually don’t want a change in law because it’s a presidential election year,’” he added.”
The authors add, “In a statement last week, Biden called the deal the “toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we’ve ever had in our country” and vowed that if given the authority to shutter the border when it is overwhelmed, he would “use it the day I sign the bill into law.”
Meanwhile, Republicans have boxed themselves into an embarrassing contradiction. On the one hand they say that the urgency of the current border mess cries out for swift, decisive action. On the other hand, they say “Ah, let’s just just let it slide until after Trump wins.” So letting the border security disaster fester for an entire year until the next president is inaugurated is the GOP “solution” to the huge crisis they say is destroying America?
Putting political gain for a leader of Trump’s character before national security shows who they really are.
Ideologues will undoubtedly continue to argue about the causes of the border crisis. Leaders who are more interested in implementing practical reforms to help fix it than worrying about who gets credit for it have become scarce in the GOP. But there are a few Republicans, who are not cowering in the shadows, and congressional Democrats are eager to work with them to get it done for the good of our country.
As for the ‘chaos’ part of this post’s title, Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich put it this way, “The Republicans’ election strategy is built on chaos. The more chaos they create, the more pessimistic Americans feel about the capacities of our democracy to govern the nation. So we give up on democracy and turn to a so-called strongman….Trump wants voters to believe America is ungovernable, and that the only solution is an authoritarian like him taking over….Folks, the political struggle of our time is no longer Left versus Right, Democrats versus Republicans. It’s now democracy versus fascism.”
