7 Things: Cruz offers fix to ‘family separation issue,’ illegals stream into Alabama, Walt Maddox says nothing but still gets headlines, and more

1. Sen. Ted Cruz offers a bill to end the “child separation” crisis; Sen. Chuck Schumer rejects it to keep a campaign issue

— Cruz’s reasonable bill would require illegal families stopped on the border stay together “absent aggravated criminal conduct or threat of harm to the children.” It would also bring in new judges and temporary shelters, but it will fail as it actually enforces the law.

— Sen. Diane Feinstein has her own terrible bill that would not allow any person with a child to be arrested within 100 miles of the border, giving smugglers, smugglers, and regular criminal aliens a free pass into the United States.

2. More illegals flowing into Alabama in 2018

— Illegals are finally being stopped at the border under the new “zero-tolerance” border policy, but we continue to receive illegal unaccompanied minors in the state of Alabama.

— 453 illegal children have been sent to sponsors in Alabama compared to 598 in all of fiscal year 2017.

3. Candidate for Governor Walt Maddox comes out against enforcing immigration law by locking up lawbreakers too

— In an effort to ride the wave on this issue, Maddox said the president could do something else, saying he also would not be deploying Alabama National Guard troops to the southern border.

— He offered no real solutions and more political softballs: “If I were governor, I would use the power of the office to encourage the president to find a humane solution to this issue.”

4. Let’s check Sen. Doug Jones’ record on immigration, and let’s stop being surprised

— Yesterday my column laid out how Jones’ position on immigration was out of step with Alabamians, and how his attacks on President Trump and DHS Secretary Nielsen put him at odds with most Alabamians.

— This should not surprise Alabamians, Jones’s past is pretty clear: He has opposed the border wall, the termination of DACA, he wanted more legal immigration and opposed Alabama’s HB-56.

5. On Monday, Alabama Power bailed on the Business Council of Alabama and now others including Regions Bank is out

— The BCA’s power base continues to crumble as Alabama’s big hitters and economic drivers decide they want nothing to do with the embattled organization.

— This all stems from an internal battle over BCA President and CEO Bill Canary leaving the organization. The big dogs want him out now but the powers that be want a longer transition.

6. Some governors won’t send the national guard to the border because they might do their jobs

— Only one governor is actually recalling his troops, most others were never going to send National Guard members to the border, but we are going to pretend this is a rebuke for some reason.

— Governor Ivey is not “mum” on this issue, as the Decatur Daily opines, there are National Guard members on the border and they aren’t coming back, so that is your statement.

7. Rachel Maddow cried on TV, so the debate on issues is over

— The agenda driven reporting in the mainstream media is out of control and completely one-sided.

— On the other side of the issue, Corey Lewandowski mocked a commentator who brought up a 10-year-old girl with down syndrome being taken away from her parents, and Lewandowski used an Internet colloquialism “Womp womp.”