President Biden needs to man up and make a strong deal to harden the US border in exchange for OKing aid to Ukraine.
It’s the right thing to do for every reason.
The US border is, put simply, no longer a border, as even the president apparently now admits.
December shattered all records for CBP encounters, with more than 276,000.
Seven million migrants have been arrested crossing over from Mexico since Biden took office; more than 85% were later released into the US.
And that doesn’t even count the “gotaways,” migrants seen but not stopped, who total more than 1.5 million (or those never even seen by the overwhelmed Border Patrol).
So the GOP’s original asks — like reviving Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” Policy, resuscitating a version of Title 42 expedited removals, and significantly tightening asylum rules and processes — are beyond necessary.
And Republican needs to hold fast against Dems’ push for expedited removal powers to be triggered only after thousands of migrants have already crossed on any given day.
Taking a deal that actually strengthens the border even makes political sense for Joe: The migrant crisis has cratered his approval ratings and provoked open rebellion among congressional Dems.
Recognizing reality would also let Biden get more aid to Ukraine, which is a necessary geostrategic move (and a base-pleaser to boot).
Vladimir Putin’s bloody war on Ukraine is an attack on the postwar order that anchors Europe, and Biden’s dithering approach to backing Kyiv now has the conflict stalemated and so favoring Putin in the long term.
Yet dramatic video of Ukrainian troops handily beating Russia’s best tank via the use of US-supplied Bradley fighting vehicles shows just how much they could do with more and better help.
In other words, this is the rare legislative deal where everybody wins: Average Americans crushed by the migrant crisis and Ukrainians trying to fend off Putin’s imperial aims.
Show some spine, Mr. President.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
