RUTHFULLY YOURS

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.

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.

To state it clearly, it is not true under existing federal law that an illegal alien who makes it onto U.S. soil has a right to be processed or seek asylum. As things stand, that is a wayward proposition, and there is no need for a new law to reform it. To the extent that the senators claim otherwise, they are either misinformed or misleading us.