Arizona Senate poised to pass a border bill that does nothing to secure the border

The Arizona Senate on Tuesday is poised to pass a border security bill that actually has nothing to do with securing the border.

If the goal really is to fix that hunk of Swiss cheese we call a border, then Republicans would have lined up to support Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s bipartisan immigration bill.

That bill would have modernized the nation’s asylum laws, making it harder to claim asylum and ending the catch-and-release program that results in masses of people being released into the country to await a hearing that is years away.

It would have required the federal government to automatically reject migrants who cross the border illegally to claim asylum once crossings reach a certain number, resulting in the border being closed for much of the last year.

Yet Republicans in Congress — at Donald Trump’s bidding — refused even to consider the bill. Within 35 minutes of the 370-page bill’s release, Kari Lake was throwing an absolute tantrum, calling the bill “a disgrace.”

Republicans want to secure their reelection

That’s because their desire to secure the border pales when compared with their desire to secure their election prospects.

Which brings us back to Arizona, a key battleground state that Republicans hope to deliver for Trump while also reclaiming a seat in the U.S. Senate and hanging onto their slipping grip on the state Legislature.

Thus comes House Concurrent Resolution 2060.

For those of you keeping score at home, HCR 2060 is the new Senate Bill 1070, the 14-year-old law that led to rampant racial profiling and a roundhouse punch to the state’s reputation — one for which Maricopa County taxpayers are still paying.

The Secure the Border Act, as HCR 2060 is called, would make crossing the border illegally a state crime, allowing local and state police to arrest anyone who crosses at any place other than a legal port of entry.

The problem, of course, is that how does a cop know if someone crossed the border illegally unless he or she actually witnesses the crossing?

Which, by the way, the bill does not require.

Border bill may be their best shot at winning

No matter what the bill says, we know what it will do. It’ll lead to Americans being suspect simply because of the color of their skin.

But because it also leads to the Republicans’ best shot at winning in November, it’ll likely clear the Legislature and head directly to the Nov. 5 ballot.

That’s how badly Republicans in Arizona want to change the subject ...

... From their impassioned support of an 1864 law that criminalized abortion and their Senate hopeful, Kari Lake’s, ever-changing views on the subject.

... From Lake’s election conspiracy theories that get loonier by the day. (Her latest: Democrats are engaging in a widespread criminal enterprise to bring immigrants here illegally so they can register to vote. “They’re asking them to sign up to vote, then they have a line in the voter roll, and somebody will vote under that name,” she said on Sunday.)

... From fake electors and the fact that we have a hard right Legislature that is out of touch with the state’s electorate and constantly plotting new schemes to ensure it remains in control. (Already Republican lawmakers have put two propositions on the ballot to meet that aim: HCR 2033, to ensure we can’t get rid of the partisan primaries that cement their grip, and SCR 1015, making it more difficult to exercise our constitutional right to go around them and initiate laws at the ballot box.)

This just in from the AZ GOP: We be crazy

... From the fact that the Arizona Republican Party has swung so far to the right that Sen. John McCain could not even win a primary election today. I doubt Barry Goldwater would even recognize the once-Grand Old Party.

Certainly, moderate Republican women and independent voters — the ones who in recent years have gifted Democrats with two Senate seats and every important statewide office — don’t.

Never mind that this won't secure the border

What they do recognize is that the border is broken and like all of us, they’re rightly frustrated at the inability and/or refusal of the federal government to fix it in a fashion that’s legal and humane and fair.

Thus comes HCR 2060, the Republicans’ Secure the Election Act.

Here’s what HCR 2060 won’t do.

• It won’t control who and what is coming into our country.

• It won’t add so much as a foot of new fencing or a single new Border Patrol agent for when those fences inevitably fail.

• It won’t retool the asylum system to provide protection more quickly for those who qualify for it and turn away those who don’t.

• It won’t add so much as a single new immigration judge to speed up the years-long hearing process.

In fact, the Secure the Border Act won’t actually do anything to, you know, secure the border.

But what it could do — what the Republicans pray it will do — is secure their hold on Arizona.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @LaurieRoberts or on Threads at laurierobertsaz.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona may pass a border bill that does nothing to fix the border