By Ira Mehlman
FAIR
Proving, yet again, that an alternative universe exists inside the Beltway, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) asserted in a Fox News appearance on Thursday that the American public “understands” that a bill he is trying to pass in the lame-duck session of Congress, granting amnesty to illegal aliens who arrived in this country as minors, “is very different than this concept of amnesty.”
Tillis is cosponsor of a bill, along with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), that would provide “a pathway to citizenship” for a large group of illegal aliens – a description that sounds an awful lot like amnesty. Tillis then goes on to offer a gross and inaccurate generalization, describing this cohort of illegal aliens as “doctors, scientists, teachers, [and members of] the military,” as though holding a degree absolves people from accountability for breaking the law.
But that was just the beginning of the absurdities Sen. Tillis managed to spout in a 29-second sound bite. He then proceeded to claim that in return for this amnesty (that we all supposedly understand is not amnesty), “we get a closed border and we shut down the cartels.” If that sounds too good to be true, it is.
What we get is, at best, a one-year extension on Title 42 – the public health provision invoked at the start of the COVID pandemic that allows for expedited removal of illegal border crossers – that the Biden administration is only reluctantly using to remove a small percentage of illegal migrants. And even with Title 42 in place, the border has raged out of control under Biden. Other alleged border security provisions touted by Tillis amount to nothing more than processing and releasing illegal migrants even faster than they already are.
Regardless of what Sen. Tillis thinks, Americans are capable of understanding that “a pathway to citizenship” is simply a verbose synonym for amnesty, and that giving the Biden administration more money for things like regional processing centers is a euphemism for greasing the turnstiles for illegal aliens entering the country. What the public also understands is that Senators Tillis and Sinema are attempting to use the lame-duck session to pass unpopular and damaging legislation under the cover of darkness.
