I support arming Ukraine to fight Russia. But I would enthusiastically support a bill that said not one dime for Ukraine until the border is secure.
I agree with Jack’s thoughtful Corner post: Volodymyr Zelensky should not visit the United States. Jack’s argument addresses the matter from the Ukrainian president’s perspective, and I agree that that’s important: The American people have paid dearly to back Kyiv’s righteous defensive war against Russian aggressors, and Zelensky’s credibility is essential to success, so it matters to us that he maintain his credibility.
My focus, however, is different. I support Ukraine because I oppose Russia. I believe American national security is compromised if Putin’s anti-American mafia regime is permitted to continue its years-long demonstration that aggression works. I admire the determination the Ukrainian people have shown in fighting back.
Yet, I can’t pretend to be an admirer of Ukraine. It is a deeply corrupt country. I am not at all offended when American lawmakers assert that Ukraine can’t have a blank check. Nobody gets a blank check — and certainly no foreign government, including our closest allies. I am obviously not an isolationist or a populist. I believe in the projection of American power in pursuit of American interests, and I no doubt have a more elastic idea of what American interests are than many of my friends on the right. But that doesn’t mean our foreign-policy goals can rationally be pursued heedless of what they cost, and of what government spending needs to be cut, or what taxes need to be raised, to pursue them.
There is no higher interest for the federal government than the security of the homeland. We have a catastrophe at the southern border. The federal government not only refuses to do the job of border security; it is preventing state governments from protecting their own citizens.
You’ve heard, of course, that the disgraceful omnibus Senate Republicans are colluding with Democrats to greenlight would provide $45 billion more for the security of Ukraine. But you probably haven’t heard that it actually contains a provision that expressly forbids the United States Customs and Border Protection agency to use its funding “to acquire, maintain, or extend border security technology.” (See the tweet by Representative Dan Bishop [R., N.C.], here.)
Naturally, because we have Democrats and transnational-progressive Republicans, there is an exception. CPB is authorized to use its funding for “technology and capabilities to improve Border Patrol processing.” “Processing” is a euphemism for allowing thousands upon millions of illegal aliens to enter the United States and remain at liberty for however many years it takes to schedule the hearing they don’t show up for. This, despite the fact that it is the law of the United States that illegal aliens “shall be detained” until their cases are adjudicated.
PHOTOS: Border Crisis at El Paso
This, then, is Washington’s message to Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, the rest of the border states, and the rest of the country where it is releasing millions of illegal aliens our law requires to be detained: No border security and continued billions to encourage additional millions of aliens to storm our border, in violation of our laws. That is what Senate Republicans who approve the omnibus are voting for.
Have a look at this Todd Bensman report, published yesterday by the invaluable Center for Immigration Studies. Have a look at the reporting Fox News’ Bill Melugin has been doing, day in and day out — the last report is about a horde of over 1,000 illegal aliens who crossed at the same time, after being bussed to the border with a Mexican police escort.
I object to President Zelensky’s being invited to address a joint meeting of Congress because it is a heavy-handed tactic by the bipartisan ruling establishment to solicit foreign interference in a vital American security and financial debate. I’m all for helping Ukraine fight Russia. But I want to know: How much, for how long, toward what end, and where is the money coming from when we are surging toward $32 trillion in debt (and that’s if you ignore most of the unfunded liabilities)?
In the meantime, as much as I support fighting Russian aggression, my priority is American homeland security. There are now about 8,000 illegal aliens breaching our border every day. If, consistent with the Biden administration scheme, the Supreme Court declines to rule that Title 42 should remain in place (and that could happen any moment), that daily number will be two to three times higher than 8,000. (If it were “just” 8,000, that would be close to 3 million per year — a population larger than every American city other than New York and Los Angeles.) As President Trump said, and as President Obama admitted through gritted teeth, countries must have borders — if you don’t have such borders, you don’t have a country.
Right now, we don’t have an enforced border.
Put another way, if an armed force of hostile foreigners were sending thousands of combatants to cross our border, we’d call it an invasion. We’d dispatch our superior forces to defend the border and turn the invading force away. The foreign hordes now breaching the border may be unarmed (for the most part), but it’s still an invasion. It makes no difference that, as the transnational-progressive cant goes, they are coming here to seek a better life. Invading armies seek their vision of a better life, too. The only thing that matters is that the thousands upon thousands of aliens at issue are crossing our border illegally. Breaking our laws is a hostile act. They are hostile even if they are not a conventional army or terrorist militia.
I support arming Ukraine to fight Russia. But I would enthusiastically support a bill that said not one dime for Ukraine until the border is secure. Russia is a significant threat. Not having a border is an existential threat.