Many independents and a not-insignificant portion of Democrats want a secure border—perhaps explaining why Biden said over the weekend that he will “shut down” the border if Congress sends him border-security legislation that includes funding for Ukraine.

“(The legislation) will also give me as president, the emergency authority to shut down the border until it could get back under control,” he said in South Carolina. “If that bill were the law today, I’d shut down the border right now and fix it quickly.”

Trusting Biden to fix the border “quickly,” or ever, would be a bit like trusting a doctor who accidentally amputated your leg to sew it back on. But even as 55 percent of Americans view Biden unfavorably, according to the RealClearPolitics average, he knows he’s likely to face an opponent with roughly the same unfavorable score. The president can placate his base and try to shift the conversation back to issues he prefers—abortion, or “saving democracy”—or he can make a last-ditch effort to mitigate the border crisis and risk alienating progressives, already furious with him about the war in Gaza. Biden’s “shut down the border” comments suggest that he is listening to warnings from influential voices like Ruy Teixeira at the Liberal Patriot, who has argued that immigration could cost him the election. If it’s nothing short of his political hide that finally serves to motivate President Biden to enforce the nation’s laws at the border, millions of Americans will take it.

[He won’t do it, though. Biden will make noises about it, just like he made noises about defunding UNRWA, but will leave enough loopholes to ensure that the border remains porous. — Ed]