"We Want Border Security"

...NOT REALLY...they were "just kidding," according to Republican Senator Lankford

Regardless of your political views, I’ll bet you believe that the “migrant crisis” along our southern border is a problem, and a problem you’d like your elected representatives to create a reasonable plan to deal with.

Maybe you are in the camp among those who want the emphasis to be on stronger security measures — more border security agents, more barriers, more round-ups and deportations.

Or maybe you think the problem is complex and any solution needs to include a variety of initiatives such as those included in this article from TIME magazine, 7 Things That Would Fix Immigration in the U.S., combined with initiatives to “fix” the root causes of this mass migration from the southern hemisphere such as gang violence, political instability, food insecurity, extreme weather, and severe economic hardship.

And let’s not forget that some of the gang violence and political instability stems from Americans’ appetite for illicit drugs, and its export of military-grade armaments that end of in the hands of those gangs.

But regardless of the solutions you would favor you want your reps in Congress to work to solve it.

A group of senators has once again crafted what has been described as legislation that would significantly tighten border security and provide resources to process legitimate claims for asylum…and thus pay the blackmail the Rs in congress were demanding in return for aid to Ukraine.

But now the MAGAs are backing away from what they claimed they wanted. They don’t want the problem mitigated. They’d rather demagogue and propagandize about the INVASION that is taking place.

Trump wants to run on immigration. Rs don’t want to “give Biden a win.”

According to Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan of  Punchbowl News, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told a closed meeting of Senate Republicans that “the nominee” wants to run his campaign on immigration, adding, “We don’t want to do anything to undermine him.” “We’re in a quandary,” McConnell said. 

McConnell’s designee to a team of three senators tasked with coming up with a plan, Oklahoma’s James Lankford, told FOX “news”:

“This bill focuses on getting us to zero illegal crossings a day. There’s no amnesty. It increases the number of Border Patrol agents, increases asylum officers, it increases detention beds so we can quickly detain and then deport individuals. It focuses on additional deportation flights out. It changes our asylum process so that people get a fast asylum screening at a higher standard and then get returned back to their home country.”

Lankford noted that Republicans have refused to grant funding for Ukraine, Israel and the southern border until there were policy changes, then, when these policy changes are realized,

“…they’re like, ‘Oh, just kidding. I actually don’t want a change in law because it’s a presidential election year.’ We all have an oath to the Constitution and we have a commitment to say we’re going to do whatever we can to be able to secure the border.”

Watch Lankford describe his plight here.

It was a refreshingly candid assessment of his colleagues’ disingenuousness, hypocrisy, and cowardice. This reversal by Republicans after apparently getting what they demanded on border policy in return for continuing to aid Ukraine is, unfortunately, right in character.

Republicans don’t want the “border problem” solved. They want to make you afraid so you’ll vote for their Orange Menace, and them. And the members of the Putin Caucus want to continue to block aid to Ukraine.