Much suspicion surrounds the proposed “Border Act” (no strained acronym, praise be), a compromise immigration bill whose details have been negotiated out of public view. The dislike of covenants secretly arrived at is understandable. On the other hand, the United States Constitution was drafted in yet greater secrecy, and it has proved to be a pretty good work product.
The text of the bill has now been released, and Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) has posted a summary of its provisions.
The chaotic situation along our southern border has metastasized into a major threat to national security. A subset of Congressional Republicans, among whom Senator Lankford taken a leading role, have used such leverage as they have over the Biden Administration (namely, the threat to cut back aid to Ukraine) to produce what they assert is a workable program to secure the border. It would have been better for President Biden to realize on his own that strong measures are needed to reassert control over immigration. The great majority of Republicans want to America continue supporting Ukraine’s struggle to retain its independence. But the Administration is ideologically committed to “open borders”, and only a threat to derail one of its major policies in another area was able to bring it to the negotiating table.
The negotiated document is doubtless imperfect. The question is whether it is good enough to serve its purpose. I will comment after I know enough to form a rational opinion. Unfortunately, many opponents (and some supporters, too) have made up their minds in advance and don’t want to consider any arguments to the contrary.
There is one stupid argument against enacting any sort of compromise: We can get a better deal by waiting until after the 2024 election. Can we? Yes, but only if Donald Trump is elected President and the GOP retains a majority (a working majority, not a razor-thin margin) in the House of Representatives and Republicans gain enough seats in the Senate to overcome Democratic filibusters. Will all that come to pass? If wishes were horses. . . .
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