Border Legislation 'Theatre' in the Senate - Is It Just 'an Election-Year Political Stunt'?
Chinese migrants wait to be processed after crossing the border with Mexico, May 8, 2024, near Jacumba Hot Springs, CA (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has announced a second vote on a border bill for Thursday, even though all involved expect it to go down in flames. With Democrat candidates getting hammered on the border issue, there's a move to shift blame to Republicans for voting against the bill, which Democrats are expected to do when the Senate bill again fails to pass.
Schumer said, "This is the same bipartisan border bill Republicans pushed for, then backed away when they got orders from President Trump, made an about face turn and then voted no. If our bipartisan border bill was good enough to win support of the union that represents Border Patrol agents, why isn't it good enough for Senate Republicans?"
Democrats charge that since Republicans see immigration as a winning issue in November, they don't actually want to see a resolution, while Republicans don't believe Democrats actually want to fix the problem either.
At a press conference this morning, Republican Sen. Eric Schmidt (R-MO) said, "This bad bill is on a collision course now for a bipartisan beat down because people see how terrible actually the legislation is. It doesn't move us forward. It moves us backwards."
Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) added, "This is an election-year political stunt designed to give our Democratic colleagues the appearance of doing something about the problem without doing anything at all."
And there were signs today that party unity among the Democrats is crumbling on the issue, with Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) saying he would not support the legislation.
The Democrats' 'Plan B' will be executive orders issued by the White House, as soon as next month. According to reports, they would give the President the authority to shut down the border if there are more than 4,000 or more daily illegal border crossings over a week's time, but that number could change.
Republicans call this a serious national security issue. There were nearly 180,000 illegal immigrant encounters on the southern border in April alone.
