Thursday, January 25, 2024

On The Border

The fishing boats go out across the evening water
Smuggling guns and arms across the Spanish border
The wind whips up the waves so loud
The ghost moon sails among the clouds
Turns the rifles into silver on the border
On The Border -- Al Stewart
 
The Trump Supreme Court this week told the federal government that they can take down the wire along the border but that doesn’t sit well with the Texas Republicans,
Republicans are urging Texas to ignore the Supreme Court at the border
Business Insider
By Natalie Musumeci
January 24, 2024


Republicans are seething over the recent Supreme Court ruling that allows for the Biden administration to cut through razor-wire fencing that Texas put up at the US-Mexico border — and some are urging the GOP-controlled Lone Star State to ignore the order.

Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy suggested that the state should tell the Supreme Court to "go to hell" over the 5-4 Monday ruling that handed the federal government a huge win in its ongoing legal battle with Texas over the southern border.

Roy told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that Texas has "a duty under the Constitution" to "protect" its citizens.

"There is no exception to that," Roy said, according to the news outlet. "And if the Supreme Court wants to ignore that truth, which a slim majority did, Texas still had the duty, Texas leaders still have the duty, to defend their people."

[…]

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said in a Tuesday interview on Fox News that the Supreme Court ruling makes him "angry." He added that "incredible progress" has been made at securing the border and alleged that President Joe Biden "deliberately, systematically dismantled it."

Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah questioned the Biden administration's next moves on Glenn Beck's podcast, "The Glenn Beck Program."

So when did we see this before? When did a state ignore the courts?

In 1965 President Johnson ordered the march from Selma to Montgomery to proceed and Alabama governor refused. The History Channel reported that…
On March 20, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson notifies Alabama’s Governor George Wallace that he will use federal authority to call up the Alabama National Guard in order to supervise a planned civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery.

Intimidation and discrimination had earlier prevented Selma’s Black population—over half the city—from registering and voting. On Sunday, March 7, 1965, a group of 600 demonstrators marched on the capital city of Montgomery to protest this disenfranchisement and the earlier killing of a Black man, Jimmie Lee Jackson, by a state trooper.

[…]


After an Alabama federal judge ruled on March 18 that a third march could go ahead, President Johnson and his advisers worked quickly to find a way to ensure the safety of King and his demonstrators on their way from Selma to Montgomery. The most powerful obstacle in their way was Governor Wallace, an outspoken segregationist who was reluctant to spend any state funds on protecting the demonstrators. Hours after promising Johnson—in telephone calls recorded by the White House—that he would call out the Alabama National Guard to maintain order, Wallace went on television and demanded that Johnson send in federal troops instead.

[…]

Furious, Johnson told Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach to write a press release stating that because Wallace refused to use the 10,000 available guardsmen to preserve order in his state, Johnson himself was calling the guard up and giving them all necessary support. Several days later, 50,000 marchers followed King some 54 miles, under the watchful eyes of state and federal troops.
Are we going to see President Biden nationalize the guard in Texas?

*****

This whole thing is a publicity stunt for the voters, both parties have worked out a deal over the border and funding for Ukraine and Israel, however the MAGA Republicans and Trump refuse to go along.
With Deal Close on Border and Ukraine, Republican Rifts Threaten to Kill Both
A divided G.O.P. coalesced behind a bit of legislative extortion: No Ukraine aid without a border crackdown. Now they are split over how large a price to demand, imperiling both initiatives.
The New York Times
Karoun Demirjian
By Annie Karni and Karoun Demirjian
January 19, 2024


Senator James Lankford, the Oklahoma Republican and staunch conservative, this week trumpeted the immigration compromise he has been negotiating with Senate Democrats and White House officials as one shaping up to be “by far, the most conservative border security bill in four decades.”

Speaker Mike Johnson, in contrast, sent out a fund-raising message on Friday denouncing the forthcoming deal as a Democratic con. “My answer is NO. Absolutely NOT,” his message said, adding, “This is the hill I’ll die on.”

The Republican disconnect explains why, with an elusive bipartisan bargain on immigration seemingly as close as it has been in years on Capitol Hill, the prospects for enactment are grim. It is also why hopes for breaking the logjam over sending more U.S. aid to Ukraine are likely to be dashed by hard-line House Republicans.

The Trump Republicans do not want a compromise! They are hoping for violence, they are hoping for a crisis over the border.
The situation encapsulates the divide cleaving the Republican Party. On one side are the right-wing MAGA allies of former President Donald J. Trump, an America First isolationist who instituted draconian immigration policies while in office. On the other is a dwindling group of more mainstream traditionalists who believe the United States should play an assertive role defending democracy on the world stage.
They are also trying to weasel out of the ruling.
Texas is apparently taking advantage of a loophole in a recent Supreme Court ruling involving the US-Mexico border in order to keep putting up more razor-wire fencing along the Rio Grande riverbank.

The Supreme Court's 5-4 Monday ruling delivered a huge win to the Biden administration in its ongoing legal battle with Texas over the southern border by allowing federal border agents to cut or move barbed wire fencing the Republican-controlled state installed at the border.

The ruling does not call for Texas to take any action in the matter — and the state's Republican governor, Greg Abbott, suggested in a post to X on Wednesday that Texas will keep putting up the fencing, even if federal border agents take it down.

"Texas' razor wire is an effective deterrent against the illegal border crossings encouraged by [President Joe] Biden's open border policies," Abbott said. "We continue to deploy this razor wire to repel illegal immigration."

But wait... there's more! Do the Republicans really want a solution to the border crisis?
USA TODAY
By Riley Beggin & Ken Tran
January 24, 2024


Lawmakers have spent months battling over aid to Ukraine and solutions for the crisis at America's southern border. But some of the Senate's more conservative Republicans are increasingly wary of a bipartisan plan to address both issues, creating additional challenges for negotiations that are already a political minefield.

Several Senate Republicans argued during a press conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday that the package, which seeks to tie together border programs and aid to Ukraine, would not actually increase the president’s ability to slow migration to the U.S.

“This supplemental bill is a kamikaze plane in a box canyon with no exit headed for a trainwreck,” quipped Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

“From what I’m hearing, this could cause as many problems as it solves,” said Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.

The deal – which has not yet been finalized – would reportedly make it harder for migrants to claim asylum, make it easier for U.S. officials to deport migrants who have remained in the country illegally, expand detention capacity and add Border Patrol staff.
No here is the wild-thing… Trump!
Former President Donald Trump has also started putting pressure on congressional Republicans to reject the deal. Some senators have grown concerned Trump’s musings could endanger what are incredibly delicate negotiations. 

“If someone is running for president and is trying to actively undermine governance, that’s bad,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., told USA TODAY. “Is it really better to have 10,000 people crossing a day illegally or 5,000? Clearly it’s 5,000. So somebody who is trying to defeat legislation, all in the name of running for office? That is irresponsible.”
They want to keep it the news and on the front page. They don’t want a compromise, they want to drag it out to use on the campaign.
 
The HuffPost writes,
Donald Trump on Wednesday privately pressured Senate Republicans to “kill” a bipartisan deal to secure the U.S. border because he doesn’t want President Joe Biden to chalk up a win ahead of the 2024 presidential election, according to a source familiar with the tenuous negotiations on the package.

Trump directly reached out to several GOP senators on Wednesday to tell them to reject any deal, said this source, who requested anonymity to speak freely. The GOP presidential frontrunner also personally reached out to some Senate Republicans over the weekend, the source told HuffPost.
But it is not just the southern border that they are trying to stir up trouble. NBC News reports on our northern border...
Former President Donald Trump described the U.S. border as “not so hot.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said it’s the site of a worsening problem. And Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said she would do whatever it takes to stop illegal crossings there, up to and including building a massive wall.

The rhetoric wouldn’t be out of place for Republicans in reference to the U.S. border with Mexico, a staple of Republican campaign speeches and the site where Customs and Border Protection apprehended more than 2.4 million people who entered the country illegally from October 2022 to September.

But those remarks weren’t about the southern border. Rather, they were about the border with Canada.
The Republicans don’t care that they are ripping the country apart all the care about is power.  And getting elected. Also remember the border is tired in with aid to Ukraine... it is almost like the Trump and the Republicans want Putin to win and our country torn in half.

Credit: Dave Whamond, Canada, PoliticalCartoons.com / CTNewsJunkie via Cagle Cartoons / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED




The fishing boats go out across the evening water
Smuggling guns and arms across the Spanish border
The wind whips up the waves so loud
The ghost moon sails among the clouds
Turns the rifles into silver on the border

On the border
On the border
On the border
 


Update 3:50PM
GOP senators seethe as Trump blows up delicate immigration compromise
CNN
By Manu Raju, Melanie Zanona, Lauren Fox and Ted Barrett
Updated 3:01 PM EST, Thu January 25, 2024


 Senior Senate Republicans are furious that Donald Trump may have killed an emerging bipartisan deal over the southern border, depriving them of a key legislative achievement on a pressing national priority and offering a preview of what’s to come with Trump as their likely presidential nominee.

In recent weeks, Trump has been lobbying Republicans both in private conversations and in public statements on social media to oppose the border compromise being delicately hashed out in the Senate, according to GOP sources familiar with the conversations – in part because he wants to campaign on the issue this November and doesn’t want President Joe Biden to score a victory in an area where he is politically vulnerable.

Did you get this, “...in part because he wants to campaign on the issue this November…” This whole thing about the border is nothing but bull. When Trump was president, the Republicans both the House and the Senate and they didn’t do anything to stop the border crossing. This is nothing but pure and simple politics at it worst.
 

Update 4:30PM
The Hill
BY SARAH FORTINSKY
January 25, 2024


Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Thursday took aim at former President Trump for pushing Republican lawmakers to oppose a border deal so that he could use the issue to campaign against President Biden in the 2024 presidential election.

Romney told CNN’s Manu Raju he thought it was “really appalling” that Trump would try to prevent progress on addressing the surge in migration at the southern border.

“I think the border is a very important issue for Donald Trump,” Romney said. “And the fact that he would communicate to Republican senators and congresspeople that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it is really appalling.”

“But the reality is that we have a crisis at the border, the American people are suffering as a result of what’s happening at the border, and someone running for president ought to try to get the problem solved as opposed to saying, ‘Hey, save that problem. Don’t solve it. Let me take credit for solving it later,’” Romney continued.

*****
BY ALEXANDER BOLTON
January 25, 2024


Senate Republicans who favor sending aid to Ukraine and cutting a deal with Democrats to secure the U.S.-Mexico border are hoping that former President Trump’s Senate allies can intervene with the presidential front-runner to save a carefully negotiated package of military aid and border security reforms from going down in flames.  

Senate Republican Policy Committee Chair Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) this week asked colleagues who have endorsed Trump to intercede with the Republican presidential front-runner and ask that he hold off on criticizing the emerging deal until lawmakers have a chance to review its details.  

Ernst and other Republicans are worried that Trump will throttle legislation to help Ukraine and improve border security before the text of the deal is even released.   

One Republican senator who attended a Senate GOP discussion on the bill said Ernst asked “those of you who have endorsed Trump, please ask Trump: Don’t cut off its head before we’ve even seen it.”  

The lawmaker said Trump’s opposition to a border security deal is “damaging.”

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