When Florida Sen. Rick Scott dons his Navy cap for street cred, lies surely follow | Opinion

Florida Sen. Rick Scott has been in Congress for almost five years.

If the former Tea Party governor were truly concerned about the looming immigration crisis at the U.S. border — after COVID-era Title 42 health restrictions for asylum seekers are lifted Thursday — he might have contributed something where his actions count: Passing immigration reform legislation.

But not a chance.

Instead of doing the hard work the legislative branch requires, Scott has traveled in Republican demagogues’ easy blame-shifting lane — to President Biden, of course — the immigrant-vilifying lane and the lane for those crying wolf for the benefit of Fox News viewers.

In his latest publicity stunt, posted to his Twitter account, Scott is at the Southern border, a chopper standing by, and he’s wearing his trademark Navy cap — the one he mistakenly thinks offers an extra dose of official credibility.

But all that come out of his mouth are lies — which he reinforces with tweets, always wearing the cap that screams: Navy man here! Listen to me! I contribute nothing but rhetoric, but it looks like I’m working!

He staged a similar “border security” show in January in the Florida Keys, when Cuban and Haitian migrants were arriving in record numbers almost daily.

They’re not overwhelming immigration officials anymore — but you won’t hear Scott recognizing that Biden’s creation of legal pathways and interdiction and repatriation of Cubans and Haitians have almost totally shut off the flow of sea arrivals.

False ‘open border’ claim

And Scott claims that Biden is running an “open border.”

Not true at all.

Biden has been under fire from immigration advocates for wholesale deportations and repatriations — and for his roll-out of border actions, a multi-pronged plan that provides legal pathways to apply for entry.

It has had some success, but will be tested now that Title 42, the health rule preventing the entry of thousands migrants, will expire at 11:59 p.m. Thursday — and word has already reached Latin America, where human-smuggling networks are falsely spreading the word that the border is accessible again.

Scott, too, is propagating the lie that Biden runs an open border, contributing to the misinformation and actually helping coyotes convince desperate people to keep them in business.

Scott adds nothing useful to the immigration policy debate, but creates plenty of spin and exaggerations that pound Republicans’ high-pitched anti-immigrant rhetoric.

It’s the kind of talk that enables a racist spewing epithets, according to witnesses, to mow down and slaughter Venezuelan immigrants in Brownsville Texas, as happened Sunday morning. At least eight people were killed, and nine others were left seriously injured.

Questions sent to Scott’s communications director McKinley Lewis about the veracity of the senator’s claims were not answered Tuesday.

READ MORE: Venezuelans in South Florida shocked as SUV mows down group of immigrants in Texas

Scott is as useless on immigration as he is on the subject of addressing the nation’s increasing gun violence, acting as if figuring out immigration reform isn’t his job.

“I don’t understand why @JoeBiden and @SecMayorkas want a completely open border,” the senator says in a pinned tweet that includes footage of immigrants at the border lined up in pretty orderly form.

“They’ve created a MASSIVE border crisis, leaving our communities unsafe and risking our brave law enforcement officers’ lives,” Scott says. “Ending #Title42 will only make it worse.”

In a press release, Scott’s communications office asserts: “The massive national security and humanitarian crisis along the southern border [is] being fueled by President Biden’s disastrous policies of amnesty and open borders.”

Amnesty? Immigration advocates could only wish.

Last week, Scott visited the southern border with Mexico near Del Rio, Texas and was briefed by U.S. Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Air & Marine Operations and the Texas Department of Public Safety, his office’s statement said.

A member of the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee should know better than to deliver canned goods for political consumption.

But the press release insists: “Due to Biden’s open-border policies and refusal to uphold our laws, Title 42 is one of our last defenses at the border. Unfortunately, President Biden is allowing it to expire in the middle of this crisis.”

Scott knows Biden’s hands are tied. The COVID emergency has been declared over. He knows the president has no legal leg to stand on to keep Title 42 in place, but he’s going to milk the moment for all it’s worth.

Scott contributes nothing to the country’s immigration challenges, which are global in nature.

The people at the border aren’t only from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. They’re also Russians fleeing the draft and Afghans outrunning the Taliban.

As for Biden, the president acknowledged to reporters Tuesday that the U.S. Mexico border is “going to be chaotic for a while” after pandemic restrictions end. His administration is working on establishing order, he said, and has sent 550 active duty troops to assist at the border.

But the Navy cap makes the senator’s publicity stunt all the more credible.

Know that when Scott dons it, whatever the topic, the political lies surely follow.