Kari Lake is melting down over Kyrsten Sinema's bipartisan border plan

Could somebody please check on Kari Lake? I worry, you see.

For three years, she’s been screaming about the border. About the “invasion.” About the release of immigrants into the country to await asylum hearings that are years away. About terrorists who slip through our fingers and into our cities.

Now, suddenly, there’s a bipartisan plan to begin to fix, finally, the chaos on Arizona’s doorstep and she is throwing an absolute tantrum.

Kari Lake calls border bill a 'disgrace'

Since Sunday evening's release of the bill, Lake has been a social media machine, posting hourly or more about the horrors of finally doing something to get control of our border.

The bipartisan plan, she says, is a “disgrace, a “slap in the face,” “a sellout of our nation.”

“Each year the Schumer-Sinema Border Bill legalizes nearly 2 million invaders who have breached our border during the Bidenvasion,” she rants.

I don’t know whose talking points she’s reading — OK, I do know — but maybe it would be a good idea for to actually read the bill.

Maybe Lake should actually read the bill

There’s a reason the U.S Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce and the National Border Patrol Council — hardly a fan of Joe Biden’s border policies — all have endorsed this bipartisan compromise.

“The Border Act of 2024 will give U.S. Border Patrol agents authorities codified, in law, that we have not had in the past,” Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said. “This will allow us to remove single adults expeditiously and without a lengthy judicial review which historically has required the release of these individuals into the interior of the United States.

“This alone will drop illegal border crossings nationwide and will allow our agents to get back to detecting and apprehending those who want to cross our borders illegally and evade apprehension.”

That’s a good thing, right?

Bill sets tougher standards on asylum, release

The bill, negotiated by independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn.:

• Offers no amnesty to anyone who came here illegally. Period.

• Requires the government to close the border when there’s an average of 5,000 encounters per day over a week or 8,500 encounters in a single day. Note the word: "encounters" -- not admissions. Given the number of immigrants crossing every day, that would mean that the border would close on the day this bill is signed into law. And that shutdown would continue until the numbers drop significantly. Gone would be the days when you can claim asylum if you can just make it onto U.S. soil.

• Requires all immigrants allowed into the country to be either detained or monitored while seeking asylum. Catch and release, the program that results in masses of people being released with a “notice to appear” for a hearing that is years away, would end.

• Raises the standard of proof needed to claim asylum and speeds up the hearing process. Those who don’t pass the initial, stricter screening would be quickly deported. And all asylum cases would be decided within six months.

• Allocates $20 billion to hire thousands of border and ICE agents, asylum officers and immigration judges, including $650 million to shore up the border wall.

Naturally, Lake goes on a nonstop rant

The bill is 370 pages. Yet within 35 minutes of its release on Sunday, Lake was coming unglued.

“Pouring through this DISASTROUS Schumer-Sinema Border Bill,” she moaned. “Maybe Kyrsten Sinema should run for Senate in Ukraine — her bill sends $60,000,000,000+ to (Ukraine President Volodymyr) Zelensky and $0 is allocated for a Border Wall. Once again they put America Last. What a disgrace!”

Oh, but she wasn’t done.

“The Schumer/Sinema border security bill is a sellout of our nation," she wrote. "We must send a clear message that the only appropriate amount of illegal immigrants allowed into our country is zero. This bill is unacceptable.”

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“This bill codifies the invasion of the United States of America. It allows 2 million illegal immigrants into our country per year.”

Contrast that with Ruben Gallego's response

Actually, it doesn't but never let the facts get in the way of a good rant to rally the base

Contrast Lake's response with Rep. Ruben Gallego’s response to the bill.

Gallego, who like Lake is hoping to snag Sinema’s seat in the Senate, is (like Lake) no Sinema fan. He certainly understands that passage of this bill could revive her political prospects -- just as he understands his own progressive base also hates this bill.

Yet he managed to put the best interests of the country before his own interest in sending Sinema to the showers.

“Arizona’s border communities and law enforcement need support,” he wrote on social media. “They need resources. They need fixes to a broken system. After decades of inaction, it’s time to act.

“Is this deal perfect? No. That’s the reality of compromise in a divided government. Anyone who rejects it out of hand for the sake of politics isn’t taking this crisis seriously. Arizona — and our entire country — deserves better than that.”

He’s right.

This is the best deal to come along in, well, ever.

Yet there is Lake, blindly following the marching orders of a former president who is far more interested in getting elected than in getting control of the border.

It’s sick. And telling. And so very, very sad.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake is melting down over Sinema's bipartisan border bill