RUTHFULLY YOURS

Republicans have played defense on immigration for so long that they’ve forgotten how to play offense. The waves of aliens, the dead children washing up on the banks of the Rio Grande, the thousands of free airline tickets for reunions with stateside relatives — all of these things are happening because left-wing control of the levers of power has been met by Republican ineptitude.

Shock and outrage at administration policies isn’t enough. The Republicans have provided no effective leadership in stopping the tsunami rolling north from Central America. But Republicans can control the issue, and the nation’s future, if they would lead.

The first step to leading is understanding what you are up against. This border crisis isn’t incompetence. It isn’t bungling.

It is a calculated effort to crash the immigration system and fundamentally transform the nation. It is an effort to accelerate demographic trends and forever alter the nation’s culture. Until the GOP comprehends the full measure of Obama’s purpose, the GOP will be trapped in a prevent defense, never moving past complaints about Obama’s incompetence.

To the Obama administration and open borders groups, the tidal wave across the border is not an accident, and it is not a crisis. It is not even limited to unaccompanied children.

There is a single simple cause behind the human tragedy at the border: Obama’s refusal to enforce the immigration laws. The steady flow became a tsunami after Obama implemented childhood amnesty (DACA) in 2012. This lawless immigration policy gave legal status to young illegal aliens by Obama edict.

But Obama’s lawless leniency went even further. The president publicly and proudly announced that he will not enforce other immigration laws. His presidential invitation spread like wildfire throughout Central and South America, and the lawless invasion grew worse.

If President Obama reversed these lawless policies, the border flood would stop. That’s precisely why he won’t reverse them. The border flood, the free airline tickets, the badgering of school districts that do not welcome the illegal aliens with open arms — all of these actions are calculated to revolutionize the demographics of the nation.

If the president reversed his lawless immigration policies, the cultural and demographic transformation of the nation would be incomplete. Texas might stay red for decades … unless.

Doubt it? The administration is doubling down and even intends to expand amnesty by edict further this fall. There has been no backlash sufficient to reverse the plan. It’s payback time for House Republicans refusing to pass the Senate’s amnesty bill.

Let’s visit the laws and lawyering that got us into this mess.

George Bush deserves some blame. The legal vehicle for the mass child migration is an amendment added by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca.) to an anti-sex trafficking law in 2008. It forced the government to admit into the country any minors, other than Mexicans and Canadians, and reunite them with family or other guardians in the United States. President Bush signed the bill in 2008 that included Feinstein’s amendment.

The 2008 law provided the architecture for this mess. Notice that left is very skilled at imbedding architecture into law that Republicans can’t even begin to understand. Republicans regularly acquiesce to broad legislation with seemingly harmless components because they don’t comprehend the devious and lawless capabilities of the left. The 2008 Feinstein amendment, signed by George Bush, is what caused the border tsunami in 2014.

We even see the same sort of long-game trickery when it comes to proposed changes to the Voting Rights Act in 2014. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wi) is being courted by the race left to give the Holder Justice Department enormous power over state election-integrity laws. Sensenbrenner will team up with militant leftists on Tuesday for a briefing on Capitol Hill on this issue. Republicans underestimate the left’s propensity to abuse power. Whether it is immigration or elections, the GOP plays the sucker well.

The first step to addressing the crisis at the border is to treat minors from Central America the same as Mexican minors and quickly return them to their home country. Changing the 2008 law will help stop the tsunami.

What’s a good Obama scandal without lots of lies?

The administration has said that the Central American minors are being given papers to appear before a judge at some point in the future and “most” will have to eventually leave the country. If they say it, it must be true.

Wrong. Most never show up for their court dates. Desaparecer!

But even if they show, the judicial process will clunk along for years. The system is tilted in favor of immigrants. Many immigrants will abuse the process with fraudulent asylum claims or applications for specialized visas that are granted with almost no scrutiny by the Obama administration.

If the immigrant objects to going to court, the Obama administration frequently forces its attorneys to close the cases, not only for minors but also for adults. Even when a judge orders a deportation, aliens appeal and delay deportation for years. And here’s the kicker — the Obama administration is proudly refusing to enforce deportation orders, as long as the immigrant has not committed serious crimes.

Fundamental transformación!

The immigration system is broken because of lawlessness, not because the Senate bill is dead.

Adding financial injury to lawless insult, the new New Colossus makes the old New Colossus look downright shabby.

Alien minors are taken care of courtesy of the taxpayer from the moment they turn themselves in, per the coyote’s coaching. You are providing aliens better health care than veterans enjoy. You are giving them housing and public school education. Best of all, you are providing them free airline transportation for splendid family reunions in places like Boston, Pittsburgh, and Charlotte. Even young gang members enjoy this new New Colossus.

The 2008 law combined with Obama’s lawlessness has created this outlandish nightmare.

Yet Democrats continue to argue the 2008 law should not be changed because these minors deserve due process and a chance to apply for asylum. Where are the Republicans to deliver the knockout blows against any Democrat who defends that turf? Minors could seek asylum even before the absurd 2008 law.

The Feinstein amendment to the 2008 law was sold as a way to prevent trafficking of minor immigrant children, but it has actually encouraged it. Leftist open borders groups don’t want to tamper with the 2008 law because their original intent has come to fruition all along the southern border. The only part missing is the mass amnesty in the Senate bill.

There was one other glitch in the plan: too many came too quickly.

Cue Obama’s request for $3.8 billion to “fix” the problem. In reality, the administration request makes it worse. For example, the request includes millions from taxpayers to give the aliens free lawyers to help them fight to remain in the United States. Right now it is against federal law to use federal funds to give illegal aliens lawyers. When Obama promised change, he meant it.

Thank goodness immigration reform appears to be dead. Had House Republicans bowed to the massive pressure they faced and passed the Senate bill, the crisis at the border would be worse. The Senate bill would not only have legalized tens of millions of illegal immigrants in the United States and allowed them to import their relatives, it would have prevented DHS from enforcing the immigration laws against anyone who might possibly be eligible for legalization.

If the Senate bill had passed, it would have encouraged more illegal immigration on a scale that would make the current crisis seem puny.

Republicans can go on offense by dumping the 2008 law. Dare the Senate to stand in the way. Dare the president to veto a fix to the crisis.

Also, instead of jetting the immigrants around at taxpayer expense, pass a budget rider that ends that practice and one that requires aliens be detained in federal custody until their cases are complete. It is not unfair to keep those who broke our border laws in a controlled humane environment until their case is complete.

I’ll bet more than 85 percent of Americans believe in borders. It’s time to defend them.

That’s what going on offense looks like. If the GOP won’t stare down a lawless president who has caused an epic and unpopular dissolution of our southern border, then the party doesn’t deserve public support any more than a lawless president does.