Ray Mariano: GOP hypocrisy front and center at Southern border

Everybody knows that conditions at America’s Southern border are a mess. A few months back, I wrote a column criticizing President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats for their failure to get control of an issue that is impacting cities across the country.

Trump and his Republican acolytes seized on the Democrats' failure at the border and made it their top campaign issue — and tens of millions of Americans agreed with them. At every opportunity, they pounded Biden and Democrats about the crisis. You could hear them chanting, “Fix the border, fix the border.”

Apparently, all of that has changed. Yes, we still have a crisis at the Southern border, but Republican chants to fix the border added the phrase “just not now!”

Bipartisan legislation

In an effort to craft a solution, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appointed Sen. James Langford, R-Okla., to lead the negotiations for his party. After months of negotiations, the result was the toughest migrant bill in decades — one that did many of the things Republicans had demanded.

One of the key provisions of the legislation was that it would end the practice of catch and release, something Trump had vowed to do but never did. Those crossing the border would not be released into the country. Rather, they would be detained and held or given the option to be flown back to their own country.

The bill also makes it harder for an immigrant to claim asylum. And it mandates that the border be shut down when the numbers get too high. If that bill passed today, the border would be automatically shut down.

The bill provides $20 billion to hire more agents and purchase more high-tech machines to catch people smuggling fentanyl and other narcotics, to hire more asylum judges to dramatically speed up the hearing process and more guards at the border. It also includes tougher penalties for fentanyl trafficking.

And it provides $650 million to build and reinforce miles of border fencing, something Trump promised Mexico would pay for.

What others are saying

No legislation is perfect. But listen to what independent conservative voices are saying about this legislation.

The conservative Wall Street Journal questioned Republican motivations asking if they wanted a more secure border or better electoral prospects. “By any honest reckoning, this is the most restrictive migrant legislation in decades.”

The National Border Patrol Council, the union representing more than 18,000 border security agents, publicly endorsed the legislation. This is the same group that endorsed Trump in 2020 and has repeatedly criticized Biden’s handling of the border. Now they are supporting legislation that Trump opposes and Biden has said he is ready and willing to sign.

Given its proximity to the Southern border, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar emphasized the importance of this legislation to his community. “”For us this is not a red or blue issue.” Unfortunately, congressional Republicans see only red.

The hypocrites in Congress

But for Donald Trump, this was never about serving America. As with everything else, Trump is only concerned about Trump. This is just another example where Trump wished the country pain only to advance his own selfish ends.

So, while some Republicans were celebrating the proposed legislation, Trump made calls to Republican senators and representatives to threaten and intimidate them into opposing it. And even though Republicans in Congress knew that this legislation was vital to our country, they caved.

Despite the fact that McConnell had praised Langford and supported the bipartisan legislation only a few hours earlier, he collapsed under pressure from Trump and told Republican senators that they could oppose the legislation. In a moment of honesty, McConnell admitted, “We don’t want to do anything to undermine him (Trump).” The heck with America — it’s all about service to Trump.

Speaker Mike Johnson admitted that he had been told not to support the bill by Trump and, before he had even had a chance to read the legislation, Johnson declared the bill dead on arrival.

So here we are. Trump and Republicans say that America is under siege from terrorists and fentanyl that is pouring across our Southern border. They warn that immigrants are swamping our country and that we need to act now. But the truth is that Republicans are willing to let the country suffer because they’re more interested in fomenting voter anger and then exploiting that anger on Election Day than they are in solving the problem.

Consider this. When Trump was first elected president, Republicans controlled both the House and the Senate and they did nothing to change the laws that have created this crisis. Zip! For all of their bluster, they sat on their hands and made none of the reforms that they demand now.

Republicans in Congress have made it clear who they work for. They work for and serve Trump.

I want to be clear about one thing: when I call out Republican hypocrisy, I’m not talking about all Republicans — just those in Congress who ignore the best interests of the nation in service of Trump and those citizens who excuse their behavior.

To all those who have been screaming about the need to address the crisis at the Southern border that now support letting this problem metastasize for another year, I can only say, your willingness to watch our country suffer in service of Trump shows that your loyalty is not to our country but to a would-be dictator. So, please spare the rest of us your phony indignation.

For all of their tough talk, the Republican solution is to watch the problem get worse.

Email Raymond V. Mariano at rmariano.telegram@gmail.com. He served four terms as mayor of Worcester and previously served on the City Council and School Committee. He grew up in Great Brook Valley and holds degrees from Worcester State College and Clark University. He was most recently executive director of the Worcester Housing Authority. His column appears weekly in the Sunday Telegram. His endorsements do not necessarily reflect the position of the Telegram & Gazette.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Ray Mariano on GOP hypocrisy in dealing with southern border crisis