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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer knows that when he re-introduces the bipartisan border bill, it will again fail. He doesn’t care. Schumer admits it is all for political pandering in an election year.
This failed border security bill isn’t about true border security, it is about election-year politics. Biden supports this bill because it is all he has. Immigration and border security are top issues for voters and the Biden border crisis has been a disaster for his presidency.
The border bill was included in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan in its previous attempt for passage. It is a standalone bill, as it should have been all along. Democrats wanted to tie it to foreign aid, hoping that Republicans would go along with it.
Former President Trump encouraged Republicans to vote against the bill. Democrats have tried to flip the script by claiming it is Republicans who do not want to secure the border. They claim that Republicans want to use it as a campaign issue. The truth is that both parties have used the issue for years. No one thinks, though, that it is Democrats who want to secure the southern border. That is an election-year conversion for some Democrats because the issue is important to voters. That is especially true for Democrats in tight re-election campaigns in spots where Trump won in 2020.
Schumer wants to focus on the parts of the border bill that include reforming U.S. asylum laws, hiring border patrol agents, and seeking to curtail fentanyl smuggling. He conveniently does not bring up the number of illegal crossings that would have to occur before the border is closed — 5,000 per day.
