Regardless of their location or political allegiance, Americans are worried about the situation at the border. They are right to be concerned about the alarming figures of recent months.
It is undeniable that the issue is worrying and requires a rapid response, as well as a better medium and long term strategy.
However, in this issue as in others, Washington politicians are at least as concerned with finding a viable solution as with recovering the issue for political ends.
Immigration and the southern border will be ballot issues in 2024 and, unfortunately for concerned citizens, the compromise being negotiated these days in Congress may be derailed.
An all too rare bipartisan effort
Faced with an alarming situation, senators from the two major political parties worked on a project that could rally a majority of elected officials.
Concrete measures such as the power for the president to close the border and a reform of the management of asylum seekers seemed to indicate a possible outcome of negotiations to which aid to Ukraine had been linked.
If we agree on the border, Ukraine will get the support it badly needs. European allies are growing impatient as President Zelensky wonders how the “beacon of democracy” can be paralyzed in this way.
While we thought the agreement was concluded, Donald Trump took it upon himself to roar his opposition on Truth Social and to put pressure on Republicans who support the agreement.
In his customary way, he did so without regard to the facts, evoking what sounds like the apocalypse: “TERRORISTS ARE POURING IN, UNCHECKED, FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD. There is now a 100% chance that there will be MAJOR TERROR ATTACKS IN THE USA. CLOSE THE BORDER!”
One of the harshest condemnations of Trump’s role in the current negotiations came from a newspaper to which one would not think of attaching the labels “woke” or “progressive”, the Wall Street Journal.
In an editorial published Thursday, the WSJ denounces the impasse as much for aid to Ukraine as for the border issue. It states that if he returns to the presidency, Donald Trump could not hope to do better. We go so far as to suggest voting for someone else.
Fear of saving Biden
Managing the border is a real burden for the Biden administration and we have the feeling that the current president is ready to impose a snub on the most progressive Democrats to alleviate the criticism that weighs him down in the polls.
That Biden mentions his desire to close the border constitutes an important shift behind which looms his desire to appear stronger and firmer.
Immigration and border security are probably Donald Trump’s two most formidable weapons. We understand him not wanting to give up even a few poll points, but his current attitude goes against the interests of his country.