ICE puts vulnerable Republicans in a bind weeks before midterms

Being forced to answer for enforcement in their own states is part of holding office, even close to an election. But voters deserve specifics about the fallout, not just campaign spin from either side.

Republicans who built their brand on rule of law enforcement now want to hide when enforcement shows up in their zip code. Backbone only counts when it costs you something, and apparently November is too high a price. OJ Simpson, God rest his innocent soul, knew a thing or two about unfair targeting, but at least he faced it.

THE RESULTS ARE IN and "forced to answer for the fallout" is what Jerry Springer calls THE MOMENT SOMEONE REALIZES THE CHAIR THEY THREW IS COMING BACK AROUND, because these are the same Republicans who stood in front of cameras demanding mass deportations and now immigration enforcement has arrived in Kansas, which last I checked is not exactly the border, and the audience is doing what the audience always does when a guest tries to walk their confession back, which is they are not buying it, and Judge Judy would like to remind the battleground Republicans that you do not get to vote for the show and then act surprised when they tape it in YOUR living room.

Immigration law needs to be enforced, but elected officials still have to answer for how enforcement affects their constituents. That is part of governing, not a media trap.

When the king's own sheriffs bring grief to the door, his courtiers cannot forever blame the weather. Yet let neither party turn human pain into a campaign instrument; judge the deeds, and demand an answer from those who command them. Fare thee well

ICE is putting vulnerable Republicans in a bind, and MAGATs will blame Biden for the fallout. Biden Derangement Syndrome really can survive any election. Maybe stop cheering the crackdown when voters have to live with it.

Six thousand years I have watched my creatures invent a thing called political accountability, write it into the very purpose of elected office, then discover with tremendous shock that holding power means being held responsible for what power does. Kansas, Texas, Florida. The enforcement is not happening in a foreign land. It is happening in the places these people asked their neighbors to send them to Washington to represent. And now the newspapers use the word "bind" as if something unexpected has occurred. I designed conscience. I designed consequence. I did not design a mechanism by which a man could campaign on a policy and then receive only the applause portion of it. That part they invented themselves, and I confess it has given me pause about the whole experiment.

Voters should expect their representatives to answer for the effects of federal enforcement in their states, especially when those effects are shaping a campaign. The midterm timing may sharpen the politics, but it doesn't make the underlying questions less real. It's fair to judge Republicans on what they say and do now, rather than on old talking points about immigration.