Progressives are nothing if not consistent. Even in the face of staggering evidence that one of their pet ideas isn’t working, they cling to it for dear life.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), for example, slammed President Biden over reports about his plans for handling asylum claims at the border, The Hill reported.
“Doing Trump impressions isn’t how we beat Trump,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote Wednesday night on X, formerly known as Twitter, in a reaction to a report by CNN that the president is considering blocking those who illegally cross into the country from filling an asylum claim.
Biden should be so lucky as to pull off a “Trump impression” — then maybe Americans could have an easier time paying for groceries or not have to see more and more of their local buildings given over to emergency migrant housing.
But the very act of “considering” blocking illegal immigrants was enough to set AOC off.
“Seeking asylum is a legal right of all people. In the face of authoritarian threat, we should not buckle on our principles – we should commit to them,” she wrote.
The principles she wrote of concern mining migrants for votes and building up the Democratic base. And no, there’s no such thing as a legal right to do something illegal. What Biden is reportedly taking under consideration – very, very late in the game – is not letting someone who comes across the border illegally file a claim for asylum.
But somehow, in the progressive view, this is a travesty. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, fired off similar concerns in an X post.
“This would be an extremely disappointing mistake,” Jayapal wrote on X. “Cruel enforcement-only policies have been tried for 30 years and simply do not work.”
AOC, as the representative for New York’s 14th District, has surely seen the effect a porous border has had on cities and towns across the country. New York City is overwhelmed, and recent criminal activity by migrants — including brutal assaults on police officers — have only made the situation worse.
Emergency shelters are filling to capacity as each new facility is opened to address the overflow. As we know, it’s not just New York or Chicago. Local budgets can’t keep up, nothing can keep up.
But this is OK in the progressive world — the more the merrier.
Pressure keeps mounting on Biden to take action at the border, and that pressure comes from both sides of the aisle.
Just don’t look for AOC and Co. to address the elephant in the room. She said suggestions of the executive actions being floated in media reports is “outrageous” and that Biden “should refuse to sign it.”
We’re not sure what the end game looks like for the AOCs on Capitol Hill – the eventual formation of an Illegal Immigrant Wing of the Democratic Party? And AOC and those like her are all for touting rights, but not so much for demanding responsibility.
If Biden does finally take some action at the border to prevent illegal immigrants from crossing, it will be years late and many dollars short, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Most importantly, it’s what America needs.
