Are you horrified by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, yet wary of your tax dollars — or sons and daughters — going off to support the counteroffensive while our own issues here at home pile up?
You’re not alone. Thankfully, two GOP lawmakers want to make sure that your interests are defended at the federal level.
Two Republican congressmen have respectively filed bills that would force the Biden administration to address our crippling border crisis before sending any of our own resources off to fight the Ruskies.
Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale and North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn both introduced bills early last month to ensure that the massive invasion of illegal immigrants flooding across our border is not allowed to continue while defense efforts are diverted to Ukraine instead.
On Tuesday, GovTrack Insider broke down the two bills, which offer alternative options for how to prioritize the border crisis over sending aid to Ukraine’s defense against the longstanding encroachment of Russia into its own domestic affairs.
Rosendale’s Secure America’s Borders First Act “would ban the use of federal dollars to assist Ukraine until the U.S.-Mexico border achieves ‘operational control,’ including a border wall as per former President Donald Trump’s famous campaign pledge.”
The bill even includes a requirement for a wall at least 30 feet tall. Rosendale introduced the act as H.R. 6648 on February 8.
“While our nation has miserably failed to secure our own border and protect our own territorial integrity, we are now being told by ‘America Last’ politicians on both sides of the aisle, that it is our obligation to do so for Ukraine,” the lawmaker declared in a press release.
“Before warmongers rush America into another foreign conflict over the border of an Eastern European nation thousands of miles from our shores, at the very least they should ensure our southern border is secure first.”
“The American people are sick and tired of career politicians consistently putting the interests of foreign nations above our own, we must put America first,” he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
The American people are sick and tired of career politicians consistently putting the interests of foreign nations above our own, we must put America first ?? https://t.co/tHPyoNb4zH
— Matt Rosendale (@RepRosendale) March 1, 2022
Cawthorn, a staunch Trump supporter and rising star in the GOP, introduced his USB (Ukraine and Southern Border) Act on February 9 as H.R. 6665.
This bill would allow the U.S. to send military aid to Ukraine, but would mandate that “the number of Armed Force members deployed there must be less than the number deployed to the Mexican border,” GovTrack noted.
“If Joe Biden truly cared about the wellbeing of Americans, he would prioritize the United States’ national security over the affairs of nations around the world,” the freshman Rep. said about his bill. “I do not want American soldiers in Ukraine or Russia, but if this administration takes action to send troops overseas, the very least we can do to secure our own nation is send the same number of troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to augment the efforts of our border patrol agents working diligently to secure America.”
Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson struck a similar note on his program last week.
“So the contrast between official concern over the borders of Ukraine and official neglect of our own borders is pretty hard to miss. We’ve returned to it again and again,” he stated.
“We think we’ve solved the riddle here. When Ukraine is invaded, it’s a war crime. When the United States is invaded, it’s ‘equity.’ And that may be why the Biden administration has admitted thousands of refugees into this country without vetting them,” he noted.
Indeed, when it comes to the southern border, President Biden has fewer blights upon his presidency more glaring than how he has managed this massive humanitarian and national security crisis.
During his time in office, border agents — handcuffed by the Biden administration’s bureaucratic bumbling — have seen record numbers of migrants flood across the border, bringing with them drugs, weapons, convicted criminals, exploited human trafficking victims, countless cases of COVID-19 and more than one potential terrorist.
The devastating state of our border was a major selling point for President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign as he won over isolationist conservatives. Many have remained steadfast that the state of our border is one of our nation’s most pressing issues.
The Biden administration already demonstrated its utter incompetency when it comes to pressing foreign military crises in Afghanistan last year. And yet they hope we’re comfortable enough with having an insecure southern border to send aid and even our own personnel off to a war that many insist is absolutely not our fight?
No thanks.
While it’s no small matter that Russia has opted to pursue this atrocious invasion, let’s bear in mind that Ukraine isn’t exactly a bastion of democracy; it’s a notoriously corrupt country and the pro-Russian sentiment among its formerly Russian population is very real.
This is not to say that we need to condone what Russia is doing; not by a long shot. Nor can we claim that we don’t admire the Ukrainian patriots who are standing up against the invasion.
Several things can be true at once: Among them is the fact that our own country could easily be described as being under siege by a human force created by decades of terrible policies that empower criminal human trafficking cartels. Then there are politicians who bolster their business with empty virtue-signaling to uninformed bleeding hearts who have no idea just how terrible the border crisis is for everyone involved — Americans and desperate migrants alike.
For all the criticism from the left, Trump’s rhetoric on the border resonated with Americans for a reason. The crisis is a disaster — one that’s only gotten more disastrous with the Biden administration’s deliberate attempt to undo its predecessor’s attempts to secure the border.
There’s no way we need to send our money, our equipment or our men and women to help Ukraine fight its battles while this undeniably massive crisis continues to go unaddressed.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
