The issue of border security should not be packaged up with the issue of what to do about Mexicans here illegally. Such packaging has politics as the central issue and leads to an unsatisfactory outcome on two fronts. Can one American possibly believe that Chuck Schumer, John McCain, and Harry Reid have a border security plan that makes a sniff of sense? Sara Murray and Kristina Peterson detail the new border security proposal at The Wall Street Journal.
“If this amendment doesn’t convince people we’re securing the border, then nothing will,” said Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.), who helped write the immigration bill.
Opponents of the Senate bill were unmoved by the compromise, which they said still made the mistake of a 1986 law of granting legal status to people in the country illegally before making the border more secure.
Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, a Republican, said the compromise amendment would just “throw more money at the problem without results.” Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas likened the day to “kabuki theater” in which wary Republicans are given political cover to support a flawed bill.
