From the morning Failing New York Times email…
"Mayors, governors, and immigration experts — as well as voters — have long urged Congress to fix the problem.
This week, a bipartisan group of senators released a plan for doing so. And for anybody who has grown cynical about Washington, the plan offered reasons for both surprise and further cynicism.
The surprising part is that productive bipartisanship seems to be alive, even on an issue as divisive as immigration. A wide range of experts say that the Senate plan — negotiated by James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican; Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat; and Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona independent — would strengthen border security and reduce illegal immigration.
The measure has the support of business lobbying groups as well as the organization representing the mayors of every U.S. city with a population above 30,000. The labor union for border-patrol agents, which endorsed Donald Trump in 2020, supports the plan. So do the editorial boards of The Washington Post, which leans left, and The Wall Street Journal, which is deeply conservative."
"What, then, is the cause for further cynicism about Washington partisanship? Despite the bill’s bipartisan roots and all the praise it’s received, its chances of passage look slim.
Political benefits
Many Republicans, including Trump and members of Congress, have decided to oppose the plan for political reasons. They think they are likely to do better in this year’s elections if the immigration problem festers and they can blame Biden. “Let me tell you,” Troy Nehls, a House Republican from Texas, told CNN last month, “I’m not willing to do too damn much right now to help a Democrat and to help Joe Biden’s approval rating.”
Republicans justify their opposition mostly by pointing to one provision: an emergency measure that would force the president to virtually shut the southern border when undocumented daily migrant encounters rose above 5,000. This measure, the critics say, would authorize 5,000 illegal entries every day. But that claim is misleading: By the same logic, the current system allows unlimited daily entries. Even more important, the Senate proposal includes many other measures to make entry harder."
RecentWTF happened to the WTF h... by Custard
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