How we know that Kari Lake wants an open border … until after the election

I’m not willing to insult your intelligence, so I’m going to assume you already know what I’m about to say concerning the former news reader and failed Arizona governor candidate who is now running for the U.S. Senate. That is:

Kari Lake absolutely, positively believes the government must do everything in its power to solve the crisis at the border … after the election.

Not now.

No matter how bad it is.

You know this.

Lake, others need a crisis to campaign

You know that Lake, and Donald Trump, and every Republican running for office in the United States this year do NOT want our problems at the border to be addressed — yet — because their entire election strategy is to convince you to vote for them so they can solve it.

So it is a joke (not the haha kind) when Lake ventures from a safe MAGA enclave like Mar-a-Lago and holds a news conference in Phoenix talking about how the border is her top priority.

Yes, it is. Just not in the way you would hope. Or in the way the country needs.

The top priority for Lake and Trump and all the other GOP candidates is to make sure the border is as open as possible, so they can convince you to vote for them.

False claims killed bipartisan border bill

This became crystal clear with the immediate false and misleading claims they made against the bipartisan border security bill worked out by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and others.

Lake said, “Well, that was a complete joke — that bill, I mean — by Kyrsten Sinema, [an] Arizona Senator, who should know better, but she doesn’t spend enough time in Arizona understanding what’s happening.”

She also posted the much-repeated false claim on X, formerly Twitter, “The Schumer/Sinema border deal allows 5,000 illegal immigrants into our country per DAY. That’s 5,000 illegal immigrants, too many for me. Secure the border & turn them back.”

No, it did not. Sinema tried to set the record straight, but the lie kept getting repeated.

The senator posted, “This provision is getting woefully — and perhaps purposefully — misconstrued. The border automatically closes when migrant ENCOUNTERS reach 5,000. This does not mean that 5,000 migrants are permitted to enter the country every day.”

GOP wants fewer crossings, but not now

Republican Sen. James Lankford, who helped craft the measure, also tried to correct the misinformation, pointing out that the emergency authority outlined in the bill “is not designed to let 5,000 people in, it is designed to close the border and turn 5,000 people around.”

Perhaps that is why the National Border Patrol Council, which represents 18,000 U.S. Border Patrol agents, supported the bill.

Yes, they did.

Allow ranchers to kill border crossers? It's come to this?

Or, as the council’s president, Brandon Judd, put it in a statement: “The Border Act of 2024 will give U.S. Border Patrol agents authorities codified, in law, that we have not had in the past. This will allow us to remove single adults expeditiously and without a lengthy judicial review which historically has required the release of these individuals into the interior of the United States.

“This alone will drop illegal border crossings nationwide and will allow our agents to get back to detecting and apprehending those who want to cross our borders illegally and evade apprehension. While not perfect, the Border Act of 2024 is a step in the right direction and is far better than the current status quo. This is why the National Border Patrol Council endorses this bill and hopes for its quick passage.”

Does the fact that Republicans killed the bill mean they don’t want any of that?

Of course not.

I’d guess that Kari Lake and Donald Trump and every other Republican running for office would wholeheartedly support legislation that would “drop illegal border crossings nationwide” and “allow our agents to get back to detecting and apprehending those who want to cross our borders illegally.”

Just … not this year.

Reach Montini at [email protected].

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake wants an open border until after the election