On this there’s no argument: Politics killed a sound immigration deal

One could argue, as the Wall Street Journal editorial page did, that the Senate border security bill, so painfully negotiated, was the “most conservative” such bill in decades.

Yet Senate Republicans ignominiously killed that bill this week before the ink was dry on the final draft. House Republicans did not even get a chance to kick the corpse or issue their own death certificate.

One could argue, as the National Border Control Council did in its endorsement, that the Senate bill would have improved the situation at our southern border significantly. But then, border control agents had serious input in crafting the bill.

One could argue that the Republicans had President Biden over a barrel. They held aid for Ukraine hostage in exchange for a border deal and the President caved, giving up Democratic priorities — such as a path to citizenship for the Dreamers — all to maintain our national security commitments.

One could argue that the bipartisan Senate bill was superior to the House version — HR2, which passed with only Republican votes — because the Senate bill provided $20 billion in resources, far more than HR2. As a former colleague was fond of saying: “A strategy without resources is a hallucination.”

One could argue that the provisions in the Senate bill to slow the flow of fentanyl — which kills thousands of Americans each year — should have garnered more bipartisan support, but then, the Senate GOP’s action was never about securing the border or our national security. It was about trying to secure another four years for former President Trump.

Supporters of the former president were no doubt thrilled when House Speaker Johnson declared that the Senate bill was “Dead on Arrival” in the House, even before the text of the bill had been released or there had been a vote. But then, HR2 was DOA in the Senate.

One could argue all these things and how shamefully Sen. James Lankford was thrown under the bus by his GOP colleagues, but all that matters now is who pays a political price because, in the end, this was just about the struggle for power.

Republicans were not coy in admitting that this was about politics, and that they could not give President Biden a “win” in a presidential election year. President Trump was very clear at his rallies: “Blame me,” he said. Will anyone do so?

Do Republicans think, given their razor thin majority in the House, that they can force the Democrats to accept HR2? Do they believe, in our narrowly divided nation, that they are on the verge of a sweeping victory in the November elections, including a filibuster-proof Senate?

Do people remember the Trump administration’s border policies that were characterized by cruelty (the separation of children), court fights (the Muslim ban), and failed policies (the border wall), even when Republicans controlled the House, Senate and White House? Those policies played a key role in ousting the GOP from the House in 2018.

The increased flow of migrants that we have seen in the last 18 months is not just because the pandemic-era Title 42 was ended by the courts. It is because migrants have figured out that, given current U.S. statutes and resources, overwhelmed border control agents have little choice but to process asylum-seekers and release them into the U.S. to await a court date far in the future. Don’t like that? Change the law. Only Congress can.

This was never about the Senate bill “not being good enough.” It is demonstrably better than the current situation and, like all the important legislation passed during the Biden administration, it was bipartisan. Thus, the bill was not the only thing DOA in the Senate. So was Republican Party credibility.

• Keith Peterson, of Lake Barrington, served 29 years as a press and cultural officer for the United States Information Agency and Department of State. He was chief editorial writer of the Daily Herald 1984-86.