Senate Republican leaders appear more intent on pressuring their House colleagues to bail out Democratic-run “sanctuary cities” than they are on making President Joe Biden enforce the law and end the immigrant crisis he has created at the southern border.
Democratic mayors are demanding the White House do something about the immigrant chaos that is flooding their cities, and more federal cash would be their preferred solution. They want a bribe, and Biden wants to give it to them.
“I understand the speaker has got a very tough job and he’s got an unruly constituency of Republicans over there,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) told reporters this week, “but it makes no sense to me for us to do nothing when we might be able to make things better and stem the flow of humanity across the border for the next year.”
“There’s absolutely no way that we would get the kind of border policy that’s been talked about right now with a Republican majority in the Senate,” Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) added, stepping up pressure on Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to capitulate. “This is a unique moment. … an opportunity to get some conservative border policy.”
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) added his voice, saying, “Negotiators are making headway toward the most significant border enhancements in almost 30 years.”
But the public does not want “significant border enhancements.” What it wants is an end to the crisis Washington created in defiance of public opinion. Republicans cannot “make things better” by cutting the current release of 300,000 illegal immigrants into the country each month down to, say, 200,000. That would still be 200,000 too many, and dressing it up as an improvement would lock in place a loss and a massive betrayal of Washington’s moral obligations. Thune is right that this is “a unique moment,” but that is just more reason to push for real change and end the crisis, not settle for “some conservative border policy.” Only enforcing existing law is good enough.
After Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was elected in 2018 on a pledge to help “migrants of the world” enter the United States illegally, southwest border encounters rose from 58,000 in January 2019 to over 144,000 in May 2019. Did Congress help solve this crisis? No, the administration used existing law.
By threatening to raise tariffs on trade with Mexico, President Donald Trump forced Obrador to keep immigrants arrested for illegally crossing the southern border in Mexico. By denying illegal immigrants access to the U.S., the “Remain in Mexico” program quickly solved the crisis, with southwest border encounters falling back under 50,000 a month before COVID hit.
Biden, unfortunately, ended Remain in Mexico on his first day in office, and border encounters immediately skyrocketed to unprecedented levels, first to more than 170,000 encounters in March 2021 and then to a reported 300,000 just last month.
Democratic mayors were content to ignore this crisis for a long time but are now pressing Biden for action only because they find themselves bearing the cost of housing, feeding, clothing, educating, and providing healthcare for immigrants. This crisis is crushing their budgets.
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“What we have is clearly an international and federal crisis that local governments are being asked to subsidize, and this is unsustainable,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston recently admitted. “None of our local economies are positioned to be able to carry on such a mission.”
Johnston is right. Without a federal bailout, Biden’s border crisis is unsustainable. By giving sanctuary city Democrats the bailout they desire, Senate Republicans will only relieve the political pressure necessary to end the current flood of immigrants into our country.