Republicans have been shouting about the "open border" for months. They have called undocumented immigration an "invasion". They have claimed that other countries are dumping their undesirables on the U.S., and blamed the border mess for drugs like fentanyl entering the country. Most of that is nonsense, but it has worked with the general public. Over half of the public now considers the southern border to be a crisis. Republicans had hoped to use that "crisis" to march to victory in the 2024 election.
The idea was to claim they had solutions for the border crisis, and those solutions were opposed by Democrats and President Biden. They thought they had cleverly laid a trap for Democrats (who they assumed would oppose the GOP border solutions). But the GOP has fallen into its own trap!
In a negotiation with some Senate Republicans, the Democrats gave Republicans nearly everything they had been asking for. The negotiated bill would impose severe restrictions on those immigrants trying to enter, would give money to the Border Patrol for more employees and equipment, and even contained provisions to completely close the border. And President Biden said he would sign the bill.
The immediate reaction was that this was victory for Republicans. The very conservative Wall Street Journal called it a good bill and urged Republicans to pass it. The Border Patrol Union (which endorsed Trump is the last election) agreed and came out in support of the bill's passage.
But then something happened. That something was Donald Trump. Trump's main campaign issue was the border issue. If a bill passed that made the situation at the border much better, he thought that would hurt him in the election by taking his best campaign issue away. He ordered his congressional cohorts to kill the bill.
Now enough Senate Republicans oppose the bill (even though it gave them most of what they've been demanding). It turns out that their fear of a reprisal from Trump was more important than a solution to the border mess.
The GOP-controlled House is also following Trump's orders. House GOP leaders said if the bill somehow passed the Senate, it would die in the House. They wouldn't even give it a vote. Instead, they planned a bit of political theater.
They wanted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas. They thought that would help place blame on Democrats for the border and keep their base happy. But even that failed. The impeachment vote failed by a 214 to 216 vote.
Thanks to this failed bit of political theater and the opposition to a border bill (which contained the provisions they had been clamoring for), congressional Republicans have given up the moral high ground and exposed themselves as hypocritical liars.
Trump and his MAGA Republicans now own the border mess. And you can bet the Democrats will make sure the voters know that!
