opinion
By Frank Mele for RealClearPolitics
When House Speaker Mike Johnson and 60 GOP lawmakers went to Eagle Pass, Texas, recently for a photo op, they may have been shocked to learn that the first question they were asked was a show of hands from those who would shut down the government. If President Biden doesn't close the border.
As you can see, this question actually positions unrestricted immigration at the southern border as an existential national crisis. No wonder Republican Texas Rep. Pat Fallon lost his mind and immediately shouted, “We're not going to show hands.” We are not in the classroom. “We don’t do a show of hands.”
No, of course not. It is much easier to stop a reporter seeking the truth than to close the border and save the country.
The “show of hands” question came from Ben Berkwam Voice of Real America, one of the few journalists who has reported the hard truths about the border crisis almost daily for years. He followed migrants from the dangerous Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama all the way up the cartel corridor through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico.
If you watch his reports, you'll know that this is not an innocent caravan of asylum seekers; It's an invasion, plain and simple. Every immigrant asks two questions: Where are you from and where are you going? They are from all over the world, not just from Central or South America.
Yes, there are a lot of Venezuelans, but just as many from Somalia, or Egypt, or West Africa, or China. Most of them are men of military age. They are not fleeing persecution or violence; They come to America in search of jobs – to receive benefits – and ultimately to drain our country's resources.
Berkwam also travels to cities where migrants say they want to go after Border Patrol helps them cross the border — New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. These cities have opened their doors to an invasion of immigrants, and will pay the price when the newcomers apply for health care, education, welfare and other benefits. But we all pay, and at a rate of at least 12,000 illegal immigrants a day, the bill is quickly becoming unbearable.
The influx of millions of illegal immigrants under the Biden regime has cost the nation billions of dollars at a time when our national debt has soared to an unimaginable level of $34 trillion. However, Washington is doing nothing to solve the problem – neither the Biden administration nor the Republican House of Representatives.
That's why Bergkham asked for a show of hands from members of Congress arriving in Eagle Pass, as if they had just heard about the immigration crisis. Who here is willing to shut down the government if the government doesn't close the border?
It's a reasonable question. To be sure, there were some members on the tour who would have raised their hands — veterans like Andy Biggs and Eli Crane of Arizona, Matt Rosendale of Montana, and others — but the Republican leadership in the House has a dismal habit of capitulating to globalist Democrats. Who care more about settling illegal immigrants in our country than stopping them at the border.
Of course, the mainstream media portrays Biggs, Rosendale, and others who want to stem the flow of illegal immigrants as heartless nationalists – or worse. When they reject false solutions that only spend more money to make it easier for immigrants to adjust to life in America, the left says they want to exploit the border crisis for political gain. No wonder weak Republicans are constantly giving in to the phony deals offered by Joe Biden and Senator Chuck Schumer.
Right now, Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma is being used as the sacrificial lamb who will shepherd a phony compromise plan through Congress even though it allows up to 5,000 illegal entries per day. If the Senate approves this plan, it will give House Republicans only one logical response: shut down the government.
It won't be difficult. A large portion of the federal government's money will run out on Friday when the continuing resolution that Prime Minister Johnson “negotiated” with Democrats expires. Cowardly Republicans will only find some way to keep the government open and pretend they have won on border security, but smart Republicans recognize that Friday's deadline represents a tremendous opportunity.
Remember, it only takes one House member to introduce a motion to “remove the president,” and there's no way Johnson could survive such a motion given the narrow majority Republicans currently have. At least one GOP member, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, has threatened to introduce such a proposal unless the border is closed. If you do, all work will be over until a new speaker is chosen, which could easily take weeks.
In other words, it would shut down the government. Some of us think that wouldn't be such a bad thing – not when the alternative is business as usual on broken borders.
Shared with permission from RealClearWire.
