If a Trump or a DeSantis wanted to close the border for any reason, it's a simple matter to lawfare it back open via a friendly judge.

But how does that tie their hands? They don't have the power to close the border now. It would be illegal for Trump or DeSantis to refuse to allow people to apply for asylum - under any circumstances. The proposed bill would create - for the first time - a set of circumstances where the President would have the new power to refuse to allow people to apply for asylum. A power, again, that the President utterly lacks today.

How does that tie their hands?

It was far from a security bill. Let's not claim that it was.

Except that it would increase funding for the border patrol, increase funding for detention facilities, tighten the criteria for passing a credible fear determination, eliminate the 'benefit' of having years in the U.S. pending the scheduling of an immigration determination, and move many/most immigration determinations out of immigration judges and into administrative staff. You know, solving the problems presented by having all those people waiting around for their hearings.

And why is this? We both know why: The democrats want an open border. If they didn't, the above statement would be untrue.

No - the Democrats don't want an open border, and we don't have an open border. Which, again, is why all of those hundreds of thousands of border patrol encounters don't result in people having lawful status in the United States. The Democrats want the metaphorical "strong fence with a big door," and they think both are necessary in order for the border to serve the interests of the United States. They don't want to shrink the door while making the fence stronger, so they insist on having "door" provisions in every fence bill.

That's why this bill, the first since 1996 that was almost entirely "fence" and virtually no "door" represents a colossal lost opportunity for immigration hawks. They'll not see a better opportunity to move the border more towards their vision of how it should be for a generation or more.