Political Wins Vs Reality

When Trump first came down that escalator and announced that he would build a wall at the border, many people believed that this was the guy who really cared about solving the illegal immigration problem. Well Trump signing the funding bill might prove them all wrong. Even though Trump will declare an emergency to build more wall, it doesn’t matter. There are so many poison pills in this bill that the wall won’t help much to stop the flow of illegals coming from south of the border.

One example is in Section 224 (a).

None of the funds provided by this Act or any other Act, or provided from any accounts in the Treasury of the United States derived by the collection of fees available to the components funded by this Act, may be used by the Secretary of Homeland Security to place in detention, remove, refer for a decision whether to initiate removal proceedings, or initiate removal proceedings against a sponsor, potential sponsor, or member of a household of a sponsor or potential sponsor of an unaccompanied alien child ( as defined in section 462 (g) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 279(g))) based on information shared by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Yes that means the illegals won’t have to sneak across the border. They can just use unaccompanied minors as a shields at the ports of entry. A wall won’t stop that. That is not all. There is also a chance that this bill will prevent ANY of the wall being built.

Another section of the bill states:

Prior to use of any funds made available by this Act for the construction of physical barriers within the city limits of any city or census designated place…Department of Homeland Security and the local elected officials of such a city or census designated place shall confer and seek to reach mutual agreement regarding the design and alignment of physical barriers within that city or the census designated place.

This means they have to get approval from the local governments to get it done. Many of those areas will not approve and the wall won’t get built. This is just the beginning. The bill is over 1,000 pages long. Who knows what else is in it?! It also is missing some important things like adding more judges. It’s just a bad deal.

So why is Trump going to sign a bill that makes the problem worse? Because he knows that he can win political points by doing it. All Trump has do is say he’s getting the wall built. The wall was his main promise and the wall gives him something to point to as a victory. Even if it doesn’t actually completely solve the problem, it doesn’t matter, because the wall makes him look good to his supporters. This is why he is declaring a national emergency. It’s all about the wall.

On a quick side note, I’m disturbed by how many conservatives are OK with him declaring a national emergency. They know that national emergencies are not there so a President can go around Congress. Plus Nancy Pelosi is already talking about using future emergencies for gun control. So that’s just great.

Don’t get me wrong, I want the wall built just as much as the next guy. All you have to do is talk to border patrol and ICE agents about what is happening on the border and they will tell you a physical barrier will help immensely. But signing the bill makes the wall much less effective.

How did we get here? Everyone is to blame. Democrats are mostly responsible because they refuse to acknowledge the realty on the ground. It’s not unreasonable to want to secure the border, and it’s not unreasonable to want a barrier. Republicans are also responsible because they waited until now to have this debate. And Trump is responsible because he is so focused on “the wall” that he is willing to ignore other realities dealing with immigration.

Signing this bill is a big mistake. Trump should have pushed for a short term continuing resolution and then educated the American people on how many of the specifics in the bill are really bad for the country. Unfortunately we live in a country where easy campaign slogans are more effective at winning support than doing things that actually work. Signing this and getting some wall built will make Trump look good to many of his supporters, but reality will show it is bad for the future of America.

(Photo credit: Getty Images)


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