We were surprised last week when we read the headline that President Joe Biden was ready to immediately shut down the U.S.-Mexico border if he were given a bill to sign that gave him the emergency authority to do so. Plenty of people, including Elon Musk, reminded the president that he doesn't need a bill to shut down the border — he has the constitutional authority (and duty). The bill Biden is ready to sign is the Senate's bipartisan bill that would allow 5,000 illegal immigrants a day, or 1.8 million a year, to cross over into the United States forever. 

Sen. Ted Cruz called the bill "a kamikaze plane in a box canyon with no exits headed for a train wreck." Rep. Byron Donalds reminded everyone Monday that the House passed its border control bill 263 days ago.

So while the headlines crow about Biden announcing he'll shut down the border if the Senate bill passes, reporters asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre what he meant by shutting down the border. It's complicated …

And we don't want to see 5,000 a day, as if that were some sort of compromise. There were more than 300,000 crossings in December, a new monthly record.

Definitions change during election years, such as "shutting down the border" meaning allowing in 1.8 million illegal immigrants a year. How is that shutting down anything? It doesn't shut down the border, it doesn't secure the border, it does nothing but more of the same.