Limiting lawbreakers is still lawbreaking

The point is that even if the bill passes both chambers and is signed by the president, which at the moment seems unlikely, it would still allow some migrants to enter the country against the law. It also begs this question: Since President Biden has not enforced immigration laws that have been on the books for years, why would he enforce a new law when the goal appears to b e to flood the country with potentially new Democrat voters and citizens?

Serious arguments are made for and against this bill. A Wall Street Journal editorial effectively said something is better than nothing: "Do Republicans want to better secure the U.S. border, or do they want to keep what has become an open sore festering for another year as an election issue? That’s the choice."

Against the bill is the conservative Heritage Foundation. In a piece published in The Hill, the writers say:" The reported deal does not stop the border crisis that Biden has created, and which he could end tomorrow with a stroke of his pen. In fact, this deal would make matters worse — all while giving Biden and sanctuary jurisdictions political and financial gifts.

"It would make the current border chaos permanent, tying the hands of future administrations to stop it … (permitting) up to 150,000 illegal crossings

per month … before a new ‘shutdown’ authority could be invoked. For now, the authority to invoke this will be vested in a president who openly defies current law when it comes to immigration. Biden already has the authority he needs to secure the border. He just doesn’t want to."

That last point is an important one. His entire time in office it appears, the president has ignored immigration laws that have been in force for decades. What makes anyone think he will start now by enforcing a new law, even if it is passed by Congress?

Heritage further argues: " If passed, the bill would allow the Biden administration to again fund ‘sanctuary’ jurisdictions and NGOs that have been facilitating mass illegal immigration, using federal grants provided by the Departments of Homeland Security, State, Justice, and Health and Human Services. The bill funds and facilitates more mass illegal immigration. It is a disaster for border security."

Democrats say Republicans want the border open (while some continue to deny it is open) to use as a political weapon against Biden in the November election. The opposite may also be true, that Democrats want the bill to take immigration off the table in November.

"60 Minutes" reported last Sunday that Chinese migrants are the fastest growing group crossing from Mexico into the U.S. through a 4-foot gap at the end of a border fence 60 miles east of San Diego. In 2023, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that 37,000 Chinese citizens were apprehended crossing illegally from Mexico into the U.S. Many of the migrants said they were escaping China’s repressive political climate and sluggish economy, but who knows if that is true? Could a spy or two be among them? Apparently, no one can tell. Economic reasons are supposedly insufficient to be awarded entry into the U.S.

Solving the border problem is not complicated, though politicians have made it so, as is usually the case when government is involved. Finishing the wall and restoring the Remain in Mexico policy of the Trump administration would have an immediate effect, but since his first day in office, it seems President Biden has been relentless in reversing everything Trump did on just about every issue. Migrants are flooding over the border. The crime that has come with them – rapes, murders, looting and assaults on police officers – are on his hands.

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Cal Thomas, America's most-syndicated columnist, is the author of 10 books.