Sinema, Kelly just opportunistic
The migrant surge at the U.S.-Mexico border has blown up, and now Arizona’s Democratic senators are tripping over Republicans to score political points.
Leading the pack is Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who apparently declared himself the border czar by declaring an emergency in border counties and deploying 250 members of the National Guard.
The political circus wouldn’t be complete without the obligatory photo op for Ducey’s backdrop to rip the Biden administration.
“The federal government won’t act — but Arizona will,” Ducey said when he declared an emergency at the southern border.
Cue Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, who rushed to back Ducey’s decision to deploy the National Guard. But they didn’t stop there.
On Wednesday, Sinema and Kelly went further, demanding that the federal government reimburse the $25 million in state funds that Ducey is setting aside to cover the cost of the National Guard at the border.
“There is a crisis at the southern border,” the senators said in a letter to the White House supporting Ducey’s deployment, asking President Biden to reimburse Arizona and to beef up personnel at the border.
The Biden administration is overwhelmed with the surge of people mostly from Central America who are showing up the border and asking for asylum after the White House ended the “remain
in Mexico” policy of the former president.
The asylum process is as broken as the entire immigration system. The former president forced asylum seekers to stay in Mexico and limited legal immigration to almost nothing. Foreigners, of course, flocked to the U.S.-Mexico border at the first chance they got.
Biden has a real problem handling the sheer numbers of asylum seekers, but Ducey and now Sinema and Kelly aren’t really trying to help him solve it. They’re merely political opportunists seizing public sentiment to score political points.
It’s no coincidence Ducey and other Republicans are pounding the border security drumbeat. A recent Quinnipiac poll shows border security is Biden’s weak spot and that can hurt Democrats with some voters.
The poll shows most Americans approve of Biden’s job handling the coronavirus pandemic and the economy, but they disapprove of the border situation.
A staggering 55% disapprove of Biden’s approach at the Mexican border, compared to 29% who approve.
That public sentiment is a real problem for Democrats, especially those like Mark Kelly who are facing re-election in 2022.
Kelly and Sinema aren’t stupid. They’re jumping onto the “border security” bandwagon for political survival. Republicans, of course, are seizing the border as a political and election tool.
But, in the end, who’s really helping Biden handle the humanitarian and security crisis along the Mexican border?