Greetings. I am a voting constituent in rural west Texas.
Since it’s a given no concerned constituent will have a moment’s peace between now and November, you shouldn’t either. And I’ll continue to do my part in making certain of it.
Immigration reform, will they or won’t they?
The GOP has spent recent years demanding that the president make a deal on border policies, and now Biden is prepared to do exactly that — embracing an agreement that Republican Sen. James Lankford of OK said would be “by far the most conservative border security bill in four decades.”
Sen. Chris Murphy who has been working with Sen. Lankford on the bipartisan plan explained “The question is whether Republicans are going to listen to Donald Trump, who wants to preserve chaos at the border, because he thinks it’s a winning political issue for him, or whether we are going to pass legislation which would be the biggest bipartisan reform of our border immigration laws in 40 years and would give the president of the United States, whether that president is a Republican or a Democrat, new, important power to be able to better manage the flow of people across the border.”
GOP leaders, meanwhile, have pushed back against such rhetoric, claiming that Biden doesn’t need to wait for Congress to act; the White House can simply act unilaterally. Even though past administrations have consistently said they need congressional action to do so. And GOP leaders themselves have said the same thing.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise in 2019: “This is a broken system that needs to be fixed. It takes congressional action, you need to change the law.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson in early 2023: “America is the most compassionate nation in the world, but our immigration system is broken. Reforming that system is a job for Congress.”
And just last month he added: “Statutory reforms designed to restore operational control at our southern border must be enacted.”
Hmmmmm…
We know Biden has been pushing Republicans for an immigration compromise since 2021 and has been consistently rebuffed. Now that you seemingly have achieved something past administrations have not, not even DJT when he had control of it all, what’s it gonna be?
Will the looming shadow of one man, who doesn’t currently hold any governing role (and will not again) be allowed to overwhelm your branch of the US government?
Was your oath of office to party or country? What matters more now, motivations or results?
Please make us pleasantly surprised with your answer.
