WELCOME, WHOEVER YOU ARE AND HOWEVER YOU GOT HERE1

The economy is up, inflation is receding, wages are rising, unemployment is at the lowest level ever, Biden hasn't tripped going up the steps in months, so what's left for the Republicans to campaign about? Immigration, that’s what.

Until this past weekend, I regarded the issue as bullshit. Republican and Democratic Congresses have been struggling with the immigration issue for years, maybe even decades, But things are different today. Not only has immigration volume increased, but the people coming across the border are different. 

Sunday night, a segment on ”60 minutes” was an eye-opener. Film showed immigrants seeking asylum sneaking into the United States through a well-used hole in the border fence. And these were not entirely South Americans who had struggled across dangerous jungle paths with a small bundle on their backs, but now included many well-to-do Chinese with rolling luggage who flew from China to Mexico, then took an Uber to the point of illegal entry. (The location of the well-used hole in the fence was posted on their mobile phones.)

According to the CBS estimate, up to 25% of the people who ducked through the fence hole were Chinese. Some indicated their total expense for the trip to that hole in the wall was $14,000!

The Immigrants poured in without challenge. A uniformed and armed U.S. Border Control officer stood by and monitored the process.  When asked why the government did not fix the hole in the fence, he replied, "we don't have the money.“ (If that were true, Biden should write a personal check, non?  Or, was the border guard a secret MAGA adherent? I doubt it.)

The illegal entrants were lined up, filed into passenger vans, asked some preliminary questions, given a date for their immigration hearing, and then released. There is no evidence that anyone tracked where they went, and there was no evidence as to what percentage of such aslyum-seekers actually show up months or years later at their scheduled hearings before immigration judges. 

The CBS reporter’s questions, on film, produced responses that made it eminently plain that many of the illegal entrants had no legitimate claim to asylum status based on a need for humanitarian protection. Those who said they were coming here because "the economy was better" should, IMHO, have been turned back instantly, or at least incarcerated until their hearings. The system was designed to accommodate people whose lives were in danger, not those who wanted a better job. And as to the Chinese, what to do with those rejected at their hearings given the fact they cannot be deported back to China because China will not accept them?

There is, of course, a legitimate way to seek asylum in the United States. There are two points of entry where an asylum claimant needs to go. However, an appointment is required, and that is available only via computer. But the government URL is spotty, and even if one manages to acquire a connection, the wait for an appointment is measured in months.

We should be clear: the Senate was, until Trump interfered, prepared to vote on a bipartisan immigration bill that presumably would fix some of the defects in current immigration procedure. But the Republican Speaker of the House has made plain the bill is dead on arrival. Why? The House rejects it because Republicans have stated publicly the passage of any bill will be another victory for Biden, and that is not acceptable to the Trumpers in an election year. Now that’s patriotism. 

Shame on Congress, and shame on us for electing them. The system is broken, and the electorate needs to install a Congress devoted to improving our democracy, instead of improving the Republicans' ability to dismantle it.

Whew! I'm sure glad the Kelce/Swift psy-op developed by the Biden CIA will produce a Kansas City victory in the Super Bowl and enough of Swifty's 11-year-old voters to defeat Trump in November. Otherwise we’d be in deep shit,

A bientot.

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