Anyone think we should be building a wall along the northern border? Good. It would be no wiser a solution than the fanciful plan for the one down south. Still, with Congress unexpectedly having to consider the fact of a rising number of undocumented immigrants entering the country from Canada, it’s heartening that it is dealing with this important issue in a way that – so far, at least – could be described as rational.
In June, the Senate approved a bipartisan bill to create a Northern Border Coordination Center. Its mission is to increase federal oversight on the frontier with Canada. In the house, Rep.
Nick Langworthy, R-23rd District, introduced a bill to require the Department of Homeland Security to conduct an annual northern border threat analysis, provide classified briefings to Congress, update its northern border strategy and develop new performance measures for assessing how effectively the government is securing the border. Both are thoughtful strategies that feature none of the hypocrisy and hyperventilation that permeate the politically driven response to the greater challenges of the southern border. And that hypocrisy is on brilliant display in Langworthy’s legislation: While he has presented a worthy measure to address growing problems along the northern border, he raised not a peep as his party sabotaged a far-reaching, bipartisan bill that would have made a dramatic difference along the border with Mexico.
Neither did Rep. Claudia Tenney, a Republic.
