Do liberals really think hundreds of thousands of men, women and children (the latter sometimes unaccompanied) fleeing cartel violence have their shiny iPhone 12s fully charged and their preferred vaccine passport-app open? Do they think they carried coffee-stained cards with handwritten dates on them in their pockets all the way from El Salvador? If they arrive and claim to be vaccinated, what can we do except take their word for it?

Recognizing the absurdity of the Democratic position doesn’t require you to take any particular view of immigration. You could be a proponent of a humane, generous immigration system (as I am) and feel the same way. But this would mean admitting that vaccine passports are a nonstarter.

Which is why Democrats should abandon the vaccine-passport regime. The vast majority of Americans who want to get jabbed did so long ago. If you accept the science showing us that vaccines are safe and effective, you have nothing to worry about. A harebrained scheme to require proof of vaccination to order a slice of pizza or see a movie isn’t going to convince the holdouts — in fact, it is likely to confirm them in their suspicions that the whole thing is a government power-grab.