Fixing the border crisis is bad for Trump and good for Biden. That's the problem.
America's southern border is a chaotic mess.
And that mess is a mirror, reflecting the longstanding political division not just between Democrats and Republicans but internal ruptures for both parties.
Many Democrats and Republicans agree that increased border security and reform for how immigrants enter the country are long overdue. But the people with their hands on the levers of policy are consumed with self-defeating slap fights.
Republicans are getting most of that attention for now, with Trump having a say in that spotlight. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and U.S. Sen. James Lankford, of Oklahoma, show just how stark that disunity is for their party.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott follows Trump playbook
The Supreme Court, in a narrow majority ruling last week, said the federal government could remove razor wire placed along the southern border in Texas that was as effective in preventing the Border Patrol from doing its job as it was in stopping migrants.
Abbott seems to think he can just ignore that.
Abbott is blocking the federal government from doing its job on the border in Texas and seems thrilled to defy the Supreme Court to keep that up. Lankford is working on bipartisan legislation, urged on by President Joe Biden, to improve security on the border and reform the process of immigration in the country.
Guess who former President Donald Trump and the faction of the Republican Party he dominates considers the bad guy here? Lankford is taking his lumps while Trump hails Abbott as a hero.
Abbott is following the Trump rulebook, which says the rules only apply when they help you get what you want, and you should never fix a problem you can blame someone else for. Earlier this month he said, almost as a lament, that agents of his state government are not shooting migrants as they approach the border because they could be charged with murder.
Republicans angered one of them is trying to fix the situation
Lankford and his fellow negotiators may unveil the language for that bill this week. He went on the CBS News show "Face the Nation" Sunday to say he feels "very positive" about how things are going.
He should call the home office. The Oklahoma Republican Party didn’t wait to read the legislation, approving a resolution Saturday to censure Lankford for daring to take on the issue.
It said that until the Republican senator "ceases from these actions the Oklahoma Republican Party will cease all support for him.”
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Lankford is not playing by Trump's rulebook. He is following an older text – Article 1 of The Constitution – which explains the power of Congress to create and update laws for issues like immigration.
This infighting is all good news for Trump
Trump is notorious for trying to avoid responsibility for anything, from sexual assault to business fraud. He's waiting for a federal court's take on his claim that a president can be behind an insurrection to overturn a free and fair election without facing consequences.
But with immigration, there is no cost for him to pay, no multimillion dollar verdict to hold him accountable.
It’s all upside for Trump as he tries to kill the bipartisan effort, which poses a threat to his attempted return to the White House. Congress actually doing its job on Biden's watch would hurt Trump's chances.
Just listen to him take the blame, for once.
“Please, blame it on me,” Trump said Saturday while campaigning in Nevada, calling the bipartisan effort a “monstrosity” that he has to kill as leader of the Republican Party.
That’s not just blustery rhetoric. It illuminates how Republican politics work with Trump in charge. Trump is the only leader in the party on this or anything else.
Trump's policy of blocking progress includes Congress
Mike Johnson, the Louisiana Republican, is a rookie speaker of the House who would never cross Trump. He declared the legislation “dead on arrival” Friday.
Johnson fears being toppled by the hard-right members of his caucus as much as he fears Trump. He's much more interested in their pointless push to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a paltry bit of political pageantry that does nothing to address the border or immigration.
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Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and veteran party leader in his chamber, supported the bipartisan effort up until late last week, when he seemed to shrug it off because Trump doesn’t want it. Will McConnell, no fan of Trump, stick with the process he helped set in motion?
Trump means it when he calls the bipartisan effort “a monstrosity.”
Democrats and Republicans working together to fix something is heresy to Trump.
Trump and Biden are dealing with party sentiments
Biden is a student of the Senate, educated from a time when dealmakers put things together. Trump is a merchant of grievance who prospers from division. The angrier you are, the happier Trump gets.
Remember, Trump made attacks on immigrants the heart of his political life, spouting racism and xenophobia as his very first presidential campaign rallying call in 2015.
Both are angling for the middle of the electorate worrying about the border, the economy, the future of democracy and so on. They need those voters in their coalition to win in November.
Biden is willing to anger the progressive wing of his party, which always wants a lighter touch on immigration. He has to hope those voters stick with him while he does not win them over on this. That's a roll of the dice.
Biden's calls for bipartisan fix to the border problem
Biden on Friday jumped into the mix, advocating for the Senate deal in the works. He cited an expectation that it will include "a new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed," vowing to use it "the day I sign the bill into law."
He followed that up with a campaign speech in South Carolina on Saturday, declaring "a bipartisan bill would be good for America" by fixing immigration, allowing "speedy access for those who deserve to be here."
Biden felt some quick pushback from the American Civil Liberties Union, which called on him to "abandon disastrous immigration proposals" and focus instead on what the group described as "fair and effective immigration policies."
The closer a deal gets – even if it is dead on arrival as some on both ends of the political spectrum hope – the more heat Biden will take. He needs the middle of the electorate to see some sort of action on immigration and the border. And he needs those voters to see Trump trying to stop all that.
Failure to fix things here for Biden dims his chances in November. For Trump, that failure would be all good news.
Follow USA TODAY elections columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump, GOP don't want to fix border crisis. They'd rather hurt Biden
