Yes, we should consider closing the border

President Donald Trump’s warning that U.S. border crossings with Mexico may need to be closed to allow our law enforcement professionals a chance to regain control of the border has finally gotten the attention of Democrats and the mainstream news media.

Where was this interest when the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, and the men and women on the front lines spent months trying to get people’s attention?

Where were Democratic politicians like Jeh Johnson, the Obama DHS secretary, when the first so-called caravans of illegal aliens began throwing themselves against our border?

Johnson was busy telling us that there was no emergency, that President Trump was just “reaching for exercises in presidential authority” and trying to send a message to voters, even while admitting that he once oversaw the same practices his co-partisans spin as “family separation.”

Where were CNN’s liberal commentators when border crossings started rocketing out of control?

They were busy mocking the situation, claiming there was no crisis and accusing administration officials of responding inhumanely to the disaster.

Now, both Johnson and CNN’s Chris Cuomo see that there is a crisis after all. It’s not a moment too soon; the system is cracking under the strain and, with ever-larger “caravans” marching north, there is no sign of respite.

Yet, some evidently think the extraordinary thing isn’t that our immigration system is on the verge of collapse, or that bad policy is forcing us to release thousands of aliens into our communities, but that President Trump would consider shutting down the border until he can get commitments from Congress and his counterparts in Mexico and Central America to help him address the crisis.

Of course the president should consider shutting down the border. If denying crossings finally emphasizes the seriousness of this humanitarian catastrophe and spurs those enabling it to take action, it can’t come soon enough.