Harry Reid has now “invited” Republicans to join Dems in a serious immigration reform effort. NY Sen. Chuck Schumer agrees that partnering from across the aisle is needed but he neglects to mention that he already had a partner in GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham. Schumer and Graham had actually been meeting repeatedly and even reported their progress to President Obama directly. But now Graham is frustrated by Reid’s attempts to play fast a loose with the Senate schedule, and has joined fellow Republicans on a border security bill.
Schumer’s response is to argue that he’s got a better border bill. “Our framework is a fix-the-border-first bill. It is not a fix-the-border-only bill,” said Schumer. What’s in his bill? Well, benchmarks, but of a unique variety. There is no mention in the Schumer-Reid-Menendez proposal of reducing the number of illegal crossings over the Southern border. Nor is there any reference to lower crime rates in border states like Arizona and Texas. Nope, what constitutes a “benchmark” to Schumer and Co is hiring more border security personnel and spending money updating border crossings. These aren’t bad suggestions, but Schumer likes to say of his legislation that they won’t proceed with amnesty until the border security part is completed. Great news, except that he doesn’t seem to want any evidence that more people and more technology have actually reduced the number of illegals coming to America.