This could be a godsend for Joe Biden if he can summon the courage to ignore his progressive critics. The president cannot exactly come out in favor of a decision from the Court his administration argued against, but he can mute his objections to Texas’s efforts to enforce immigration laws in ways progressives resent. But if the Fifth Circuit sides with Texas lawmakers in the end, the effect would be to mitigate the migrant crisis — even at the margins — in ways Joe Biden desperately needs.

The president can and almost certainly will demagogue the conditions from which he would benefit. He can insist that his hands are tied by a reckless Court, and he is reluctantly obliged to watch helplessly as Texas’s ruthless Republicans go to work managing the crisis over which Biden has presided. This White House cannot help but flatter the pretensions of the progressive activists that so torment it. But what Biden needs is for Americans to feel some relief from the crisis at the border, the effects of which have spilled over into almost every community in the country. As much as the Left resents it, Texas is willing to do its part to rescue Biden from the bad judgment of his progressive allies.