In his latest letter to these pages, reader Ed Surgan claims that President Joe Biden “has personally destroyed what border integrity we had” [“Distorted Realities,” Letters, February 8]. So I would assume that he would have supported the bipartisan border reform legislation sponsored by Republican Senator James Langford of Oklahoma.
The bill was described by the conservative Wall Street Journal (owned by Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch) as “the most restrictive migrant legislation in decades.” The editorial adds, “This is almost entirely a border security bill, and its provisions include longtime GOP priorities that the party’s restrictionists could never have passed only a few months ago … [and] completely forgoes a longtime demand from Democratic lawmakers for a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who were brought to America as children and who have spent the vast majority of their lives in the United States.”
The bill received endorsement from the labor union that represents U.S. Border Patrol agents. These are the men and women who deal with the crisis at the border every day.
Democrats in Congress were willing to give up many of their demands in exchange for financial support for Ukraine’s war against Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
But even before the details of the border legislation were made public, former President Donald Trump weighed in. It seems he did not want the legislation to pass, preferring to keep the border dysfunction as a campaign issue.
Never in my lifetime have I seen a more blatant example of a politician putting his personal interests ahead of the public good. Trump did not even attempt to hide the reason for his interference. But that did not stop his acolytes in Congress from scuttling the legislation.
After hearing of this episode, it is no wonder that President Trump’s former chief of staff, General John Kelly, described him as “a person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about.” Then adding, “He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life.”
And because of this man, America must endure months if not years of border chaos and misery.
John Neely
Westhampton Beach
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