Prepare to be shocked.

The Hill reports that Democrat Beto O’Rourke, the failed presidential candidate who is running to become Texas’s next governor, has just publicly criticized President Joe Biden over one of Biden’s recent immigration policy decisions. 

Background

The decision that O’Rourke has taken issue with is the one the Biden administration has made to let Title 42 expulsions come to an end.

Title 42 is the Trump-era policy that has been used by the federal government to expel illegal immigrants during the coronavirus pandemic. It is scheduled to come to an end in late May.

The Biden administration has signaled that it intends to let Title 42 expire, which has raised concerns about southern border immigration. Americans have already witnessed record or near-record breaking southern border numbers in 2021, and 2022 is already on pace to be worse, even without Title 42 coming to an end.

However, with Title 42 coming to an end, experts are predicting that the number of border crossings will jump from about 8,000 per day to possibly over 18,000 per day. And, the Biden administration seems to be doing little to stop this from happening.

Biden has already received a lot of criticism from Republicans over the decision to let Title 42 end. Some have even called for his impeachment. Criticism from Democrats, however, has been much rarer, which makes what O’Rourke had to say particularly surprising.

“It does not make sense”

O’Rourke’s criticism of Biden came during an interview that he did on Tuesday with the Texas Tribune. There, he took issue with Biden ending Title 42 without a plan to handle the surge that will follow.

“It does not make sense to end this until there is a real plan and the capacity in place to handle those and address those that come over,” O’Rourke said. “I have yet to hear a plan from the Biden administration to address the dynamic we will have on the border once Title 42 ends.”

O’Rourke didn’t stop there either. He went on to call for accountability.

“Everyone is legitimately concerned about the lack of a plan,” O’Rourke said. “We should hold the federal government accountable for doing its job, and they’re not doing that.”

It’s the surest sign that it is an election year: a Democrat saying what he thinks the voters want to hear to win votes, even if it means contradicting himself and his fellow Democrats.