While the spotlight has been on Republican inter-party strife lately, there's trouble in paradise across the aisle. The border crisis has reached levels of disaster so obscene that not even Democrats can ignore it any longer, and the Biden administration is starting to shift its strategy.

According to RedState's Bob Hoge, the president has waived several environmental laws to start construction on a new section of the largely incomplete border wall. 

The Biden administration announced they waived 26 federal laws in South Texas to allow border wall construction on Wednesday, marking the administration’s first use of a sweeping executive power employed often during the Trump presidency.

The Department of Homeland Security posted the announcement on the U.S. Federal Registry with few details outlining the construction in Starr County, Texas, which is part of a busy Border Patrol sector seeing “high illegal entry.” According to government data, about 245,000 illegal entries have been recorded in this region during the current fiscal year.

As moves go, it's a rather tepid one, but for true believers, it's a betrayal. Thrice-failed politician Beto O'Rourke, who has lost races for the governor, senator, and president, is one of those true believers. He's furious at Biden for daring to take even the smallest step toward sanity. 

1. Walls don’t work

2. President Biden promised he wouldn’t build them

3. Now even harder for voters to distinguish between him & Trump on border/immigration

4. Wasted opportunity to use executive power to actually fix our asylum system instead of impotent political posturing https://t.co/AQkxokNd2a

— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) October 5, 2023

Walls don't work? That'd be news to, you know, pretty much the entire history of civilization. In context, walls obviously deter illegal entries at the Southern Border (when they don't have doors welded open). There's a reason the hot spots for crossings are the shallower portions of the Rio Grande River where illegal immigrants can simply wade across. Are walls the be-all-end-all answer? Of course not, but that's like saying airplanes are bad because you can't drive one to grab dinner. A comprehensive security approach would be the only way to really stem the tide. 

O'Rourke is right about one thing, though. Biden did promise to not build another single foot of wall. That he's having to eat his own words after his policies failed so badly would be hilarious if the situation wasn't so dire. But does that make Biden indistinguishable from Trump on the border? That's an insane contention given the current administration's scuttling of somewhat successful policies like Remain in Mexico. 

Still, O'Rourke's dumbest statement is his final one. He wants to "fix" the asylum system. On the surface, that sounds great because the asylum system is definitely broken. As it stands, it allows millions of people a year to cross the border illegally and then fraudulently claim asylum. Economic conditions and even high crime are not legitimate reasons for asylum, yet those make up the lion's share of reasons people are illegally entering the United States, often passing multiple "safe" (by asylum standards) countries along the way. 

Democrats like O'Rourke don't want to reform the asylum rules to stop their abuse, though. Instead, they want to make them even more lax, with quick processing and work permits being handed out like candy. What would that do? It would just accelerate the rush to the border even further. 

But hey, I'm all for Democrats fighting over this. This is what happens when ideology overtakes common sense.