The voters are rejecting Washington’s failed border deal

Last week’s reporting from The Hill is a perfect example of how Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is preserving a Republican Party in Washington that has completely lost touch with our voters and the real world. 

Nobody has done more for border security and is more equipped to say what works on the border than President Trump. Look at his record. Even as Democrats led an all-out war against him for four years, Trump secured the border by enforcing America’s laws and giving our brave border patrol agents the tools they needed to do their jobs. He didn’t sign new legislation to do this. He simply enforced our laws.

So why would anyone in Washington believe that Trump, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives and Senate conservatives should be totally cast out of the conversation about the alleged border bill?

The answer is simple. Trump and House and Senate conservatives represent the views and beliefs of Republican voters. Mitch McConnell and the Washington establishment don’t. They have undermined Republican voters for years, and the voters have said enough.

Unfortunately, these politicians, who are hell-bent on this deal, represent a Republican Party that exists only in Washington, where it’s dominated by political and economic insiders. In this world, yesterday’s insider Republicans cut secret deals with yesterday’s insider Democrats behind closed doors, then spring them on hard working Americans like they just did us a great favor, when they actually kicked us in the teeth. 

That’s over. Yesterday’s Republicans have cut enough self-serving deals with today’s Democrats. It’s time to move ahead without them.

The “process” so far on the alleged border deal is no different than then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) saying we have to pass ObamaCare to know what is in it. We haven’t seen any text and the little that McConnell has told us is that this is a massive check for Ukraine, and no border security until we get a Republican president. Most Republicans and even some Democrats are for accountability in Ukraine spending and real border security. Neither are in this bill, according to McConnell.

Republicans want a secure border. When I talk to Floridians, they want the border to get fixed today because they see how dangerous it is. More than 8 million people have illegally entered the United States since President Biden took office. Among them are hundreds of terrorists. It’s a catastrophic failure that is a real and present danger to American families, businesses and our national security.

Nobody wins by letting Biden’s border disaster continue. The Democrats, and some Republicans who claim that President Trump or anyone else wants the border crisis to continue because it’s good politics are trying to find an offramp for their failure instead of recognizing that it is the voters who have rejected their efforts to codify Biden’s border policies in law. The only place their lies are entertained is in Washington, where commonsense doesn’t exist.

Securing the border requires forcing Biden to enforce the law. Nothing we have seen over the past three years suggests he will do that. That’s why McConnell’s plan to give Biden and Democrats a win that they can campaign on and claim they’re working to solve the border crisis is a joke.

We’ve heard that this bill will allow 5,000 migrants to illegally enter the U.S. every day. That’s more than 1.8 million illegal border crossings a year. Why would we put that into law as acceptable? We’ve also been told that there are no metrics tying Ukraine aid or anything else that Biden and the Democrats care deeply about to securing the border.

If you want someone to blame for a failure to get something done to secure the border, or provide lethal aid to Ukraine, Israel or Taiwan, blame Washington’s Senate Republican leader, who is totally disconnected with our voters and who would rather pass anything for Ukraine than actually secure our border.

Republican Rick Scott represents Florida in the United States Senate. He is a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the former governor of Florida.