As the nation grapples with the very real problem of border enforcement, Sen. Josh Hawley, as usual, offers not viable solutions but a self-serving stunt. The Missouri Republican has filed legislation that would give state and local officials the authority to patrol the border and enforce federal immigration law.
The bill has no chance of passage because, among other problems, it is unconstitutional. Hawley surely knows this, but his intent, as always, is the headline. Hesitant as we are to give that to him, it’s important to highlight this latest example of Hawley’s unfitness for office.
America’s broken immigration system is a bipartisan fiasco decades in the making, with congressional gridlock being the main culprit and plenty of blame to go around through decades of punting the problem from one administration to the next. Republicans and Democrats in Congress have proven inept at negotiating legislative solutions. The Biden administration has defaulted to a status quo that doesn’t work. Republican governors in Florida, Texas and Arizona have opportunistically used that genuine policy failure as an excuse for antics such as shipping migrants to politically liberal regions.
