Opinion
America’s southern border has been broken for a very long time. Too long.
More illegal immigrants are coming in than at any point in modern history. In fact, December 2023 was the worst month, in the worst year, ever.
Democrats aren’t lifting a finger to fix this. In fact, the Biden administration – after the worst year in history – is opening even more border crossings.
But for a group of House conservatives, enough is enough.
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Shut Down the Border Or Else
As yet another “funding deadline” approaches, the lack of regular order has provided conservatives with an opportunity for leverage.
The Messenger reports, “Shut down the southern border or shut down the government — that’s what a growing number of House Republicans are demanding as negotiations over both issues heat up on Capitol Hill.
“We’re all saying the same thing,” House Freedom Caucus member Keith Self said after a GOP conference meeting Wednesday morning. “Our people are telling us to shut the border. That is now an existential threat to our republic.”
The story continued:
Rep. Tim Burchett said the border is the No. 1 issue and he was not satisfied with the conference’s discussion around how to leverage policy changes to stem the flow of migrants. The Tennessee Republican is willing to use government funding as a pressure point, but he said his colleagues are divided.
“Some people don’t want to fight,” Burchett said. “They just want to go along to get along and get reelected. I don’t share that sentiment.”
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National Security Should Be the Top Priority of Congress
It seems odd that this needs to be repeated so often: The primary purpose of the government is to protect the country and its citizens. That’s the first thing it exists to do.
House Freedom Caucus member Matt Rosendale said, “The largest obligation that we have as members of Congress is to secure our nation. We’re not doing it, but this is our opportunity to do so, right now, when these two major issues come together, where you have funding that is necessary for large parts of the government and a policy matter that is compromising our national security.”
Rosendale is right that national security should be the number one concern of lawmakers.
That it’s not is insane. These Republicans are doing the right thing by threatening to shut down the government if something can’t be done to fix the border.
If we don’t have borders we no longer have a nation. There’s nothing complicated about understanding that.
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