Pirate's Cove

But, first, let’s go to National Review, which apparently did not get rid of all their squishes. Noah Rothman apparently thinks this is a case of a hawkish bill meeting a dovish GOP, meaning those who are against it

But then, perhaps the border provisions in this bill aren’t central to the GOP’s opposition — that’s certainly the impression one gets from the rump of malcontents in the Republican House conference who, given the meagerness of the GOP’s majority, can control the agenda. To hear them and influential outsiders loyal to Donald Trump talk about the bill, the biggest problem with it is the funding it provides to Ukraine for its defense against a Russian invasion. Indeed, the whole reason why funding for Ukraine was included in a comprehensive bill designed to address all of America’s mounting challenges abroad at once was to help GOP lawmakers swallow that pill. The ploy seems to have backfired. As Ron DeSantis’s press secretary, Jeremy Redfern, put it, given the $60 billion devoted to providing Ukrainians with ordnance, the bill provides “more cash to protect Ukraine’s border than our border.”

Noah wants the GOP to cave on a bill that contains a whole bunch of good stuff, but, has A LOT of really bad stuff that codifies lots of illegals and migrants, and still incentivizes them to come illegally. Andrew C McCarthy conversely writes at NRO that it should be killed off

On X/Twitter, Fox News’ superb reporter Bill Melugin has a good analysis of the long-awaited Senate border legislation. It is very fair in presenting what is enticing about the proposal. The problem is that what is enticing is disingenuous and, ultimately, counterproductive.

That is to say, the good in the bipartisan Senate negotiators’ proposal — and there definitely is some — (a) can already be accomplished under current law, and (b) would require faith that the Biden administration will for some reason enforce these provisions even though it has systematically refused to enforce existing border-security provisions. More important, to get the illusory good in the proposal, Congress would have to enact provisions in the deal that would both undermine existing statutory restrictions and etch into our law magnets for illegal immigration.

The most significant aspect of the deal (which can be read here) is the one the senators tout as, in effect, not merely forcing an immediate shutdown of the border but ending the main driver of illegal immigration — ending, as Melugin aptly puts it, “the whole idea of ‘I made it to U.S. soil, you have to process me.’”

Immediately, we detect the flaw in the senators’ calculations that I have repeatedly emphasized (see, e.g., here, here, and here): Both legally and practically speaking, the border can be shut down, right this instant. There is no legal requirement that any alien who sets foot on American soil be permitted to apply for asylum (which is a discretionary act of national clemency, not a right of the alien). There is similarly no mandate that such aliens be routed into a “process” that enables them to remain — even though their first contact with our nation is to flout its laws, and even though empowering illegal aliens this way is patently harmful to aliens who are attempting to enter by complying with our laws.

Let’s say this horrible bill passes: does anyone think Biden will actually do a damned thing to shut the border if he wins in November? He’s trying to look tough now with an election coming up and an electorate which is incensed by what’s going on. He wins, the border is right back to what he’s done the last three years.

Let’s go to Senator Lee. Putting it under the more tag, it’s long

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Read: Senator Mike Lee Explains Just How Bad The Border Bill Is »