When Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently unveiled his “six pillar plan” for dealing with the crisis on our southern border, he certainly didn’t mention this truly awful idea. During his recent testimony before Congress, Mayorkas slipped in one option that Joe Biden is reportedly considering. In order to provide better care for the tens of thousands of illegal aliens streaming across the border, the White House is looking at the possibility of diverting funding from the Veterans Administration for that situation. Additionally, some of the doctors and nurses tasked with caring for our veterans could be reassigned to providing care for the illegals. Our colleague Spencer Brown at Townhall has the details.

During his recent testimony before Congress, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas informed lawmakers that the Biden administration was considering diverting resources from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to deal with Biden’s border debacle. This includes not just funding but also VA nurses and doctors who are tasked with caring for America’s veterans, and who may now be sent to care for illegal immigrants.

It’s a ludicrous idea and a terrible decision that Biden seems ready to make. Veterans’ health care has struggled in the past — notably during the last time Biden was in the White House as Vice President in the Obama administration.

America’s veterans deserve the best possible care as a small benefit in return for their service to our country and defense of our freedom. But Biden thinks those who care for veterans can just be shuffled around as his administration flails about trying to handle the border crisis his policies created.

In the Senate, Joni Ernst and John Boozman have already sent a letter to Biden saying that lifting Title 42 would exacerbate an already ugly situation. Using VA resources to address this crisis would only make matters even worse.

The VA is currently experiencing major staffing shortages and high workforce turnover rates. The deployment of VA personnel in a ‘Fourth Mission’ capacity will impact veterans’ ability to receive timely care from the VA and should not be a consideration while developing your Administration’s plan as a result of the failure to implement and maintain commonsense border security policies.

There’s no question that the crisis on the southern border exists because of Biden’s own policies and it will require significant investments if it is to be addressed. That much should go without saying. And if the White House does plan to actually start doing something about it and seal the border, I will be first in line to applaud them. But if you need additional resources to get the job done, why not just go pluck some more imaginary money off of the magical cash tree in the Rose Garden as he’s done for Ukraine and endless rounds of COVID relief?

Under the best of circumstances, this would be a stupid move and it’s a guaranteed loser in terms of politics. Too many veterans already struggle to find medical care today, particularly when the White House is pushing to close even more veterans hospitals, as Biden is doing in New York. One of the few groups of people in modern America who receive consistently favorable bipartisan approval rates and support are our veterans.

Suggesting that illegal aliens are more deserving of limited medical resources and funding than our veterans makes it seem as if Joe Biden is just daring the country to hate him. And if he actually goes ahead and has Mayorkas do this, the country may just take him up on his offer.