This writer does not represent the views and opinions of the Ridgeview News
Trump says NO. “I Alone Can Fix It.”
Last October, President Biden asked Congress for nearly $106 billion for Ukraine, Israel and US border security. Mike Johnson, MAGA Republican leader in the House, refused Biden’s request without major changes in border security.
Money for Ukraine has now run out and, by some reports, the tide of war is turning toward Putin. MAGA Republicans do not care. (Putin puppets.)
Senators of both parties do care. They have negotiated an agreement with the White House on a major border security and immigration bill. Sane Republicans see that President Biden must compromise on immigration because the Ukraine situation is so urgent and dire.
Biden also knows that the situation on the southern border really does need to be fixed. Congress has failed to act on immigration reform for 20 years.
The text of the bipartisan bill is not yet available, but lead Republican negotiator, Senator Lankford of Oklahoma says, “This bill focuses on getting to zero illegal crossings a day.”
The bipartisan bill would give the President 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,” Biden said.
Along with money for border agents, judges, asylum officers,and fentanyl inspection machines, the bill reportedly would deploy the National Guard to construct double- and triple-level fencing in high frequency border crossing areas. Build the Wall!
To be blunt, the bill gives the Republicans everything they have asked for.
Republicans who want to govern say Yes. Trump says NO,
“As the leader of our party, there is zero chance I will support this horrible open borders betrayal of America.” (He hasn’t seen it yet.)
Trump threatens Republican lawmakers who support any deal.The party backs down. What does Trump have on these people?
Trump’s opposition is totally political. Any border deal “is a gift to the Radical Left Democrats.”
“They need it politically,” Trump said. Yes, but so does he.
Trump needs trouble on the southern border so racist, xenophobic immigration fear (“They’re poisoning the blood of our country.”) will be his big election issue.
Trump says he alone can “fix” the border. Family separation. Kids in cages. Massive immigrant roundup, concentration camps and deportations. “The day of my inauguration, we will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in history.”
What Trump and the MAGA right fear most of all is a system that might function better without resorting to the maximally cruel and extreme restrictions they see as the only acceptable “final solution.”
While ordering Congress to say NO to fixing the border, Trump is cheering for Texas to stand up to the federal government and urging on the secessionist rhetoric of Republican governors.
Since last fall, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has used the armedTexas National Guard to “fortify” the Mexican border, stringing29 miles of razor wire along the border and in the Rio Grande to prevent immigrants from reaching the US through Texas.
Abbot’s fortification of the Mexican border proclaims Texas’ sovereignty – its right to defend itself against what he insists on calling an “invasion.” (“Invasions” involve armed force for conquest or plunder. It’s just a lot of poor people.)
The Texas national guard blocked federal Border Patrol agents from reaching the border to rescue maimed and bloodied immigrants. A woman and two children drowned after the Texas National Guard prevented federal agents from reaching them.
The US Supreme Court ruled that the federal government, not Texas, has authority over the border and ordered Texas to allow federal agents to remove the razor wire. The decision was 5 to 4. (Are the four most conservative justices prepared to undo the Supremacy Clause?)
Despite what the Supreme Court said about who’s in charge at the border, last week 25 Republican governors signed a joint statement of solidarity with Governor Abbott, writing “the Biden administration has abdicated its constitutional compact duties to the states.” This is civil war talk, language famously last used by South Carolina in its 1860 Declaration of Secession.
Trump supports the governors against the federal government, calling on “all willing States to deploy their guards to Texas to prevent the entry of illegals, and to remove them back across the border.”
In recent days, Trump has predicted a 100% chance of a terrorist incident in the US this year, and it sure looks like he’s now provoking one. Insurrection, the Sequel.
A bloody incident on the southern border is just what Trump needs to distract from his sexual assault and defamation verdict, imminent loss of his New York business organization, 91 felony counts, mental confusion, controlled-substance distribution in the Trump White House, and Nikki Haley trolling him.
Americans desperately need to fix border security and our immigration system. Congress could do it right now.
Only Trump and his MAGA servants are stopping them. We are all being held hostage by Donald Trump’s desperate need to be elected and Get Out of Jail Free.
In November, Vote Blue for sanity and reason and an end to the constant chaos Donald Trump foments because “he alone can fix it.” That might be his biggest lie. Congress has just proved it can fix the border situation. The truth is “he alone can prevent it.” He must be stopped.
