In his column “Playing politics with the border” (Aug. 24, TribLive), Joseph Sabino Mistick blames Donald Trump for seeking an advantage in the coming election by helping kill the Democrats’ recent bill to “provide sweeping immigration and border security reforms.” President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Bob Casey turned a blind eye to illegal immigration, deadly fentanyl deaths and crime for over three years, all to recruit legions of new voters. Mistick and all voters should ask: “Why, after three years of doing nothing, is there pressure to act now?”
Increasing voter distaste of illegal immigration, fentanyl deaths and crime in an election year is why. This hurts candidates Harris and Gov. Tim Walz and Democratic senators and congresspeople running for election, most of whom did nothing against it for three years prior to this bill.
Sen. Chuck Schumer’s bill also included expenditures unrelated to immigration but favorable to Democrats. GOP House leadership, early on, said the bill’s substance was dead on arrival. Schumer knew this, but he knew it would show voters that the Democrats “were doing something”’ about the worsening illegal immigration problem. Most importantly, it would allow Harris/Walz and the Bob Caseys of the Senate and House to run TV ads touting their support for the bill they knew was weak and had no chance of passing.
Mistick’s “out” is to blame the bill’s defeat on Trump. Schumer’s “do something about it” bill was all for show. It should be seen by voters as “too little, too late.” Harris and Democratic candidates still own illegal immigration. Voters are likely to remember this on Election Day.
Scott Brown
Greensburg