That picture. That horrific picture.

A little girl and her father, face down in the Rio Grande. Drowned on their way to America.

I’m writing this before the Democratic debate tonight - hoping the College World Series goes well beyond 9 p.m. so I’ll have a good excuse not to watch the eveything’s-free-fest - but we all know what’s coming when talk turns to the border.

Trump, Trump, Trump. It’s all Trump’s fault. 

Which is - in plain English - bullshit.

Oh, the president’s partly to blame for the immigration mess. His bombastic personality has helped Balkanize the country, making it ever less likely that political opponents would come together to fix the immigration system.

But Trump didn’t create this problem. It’s been going on for decades. And there is so much blame to go around. 

Let’s start with a broken American immigration system that causes people to believe that if they can just get a toe onto U.S. soil they can claim asylum and stay. 

Then there are sanctuary cities, where local politicians defy American immigration laws and urge illegals to do the same. The existence of these cities encourages desperate people to risk the perilous journey. Worse, the immigrants pay gangsters and human traffickers to get them here.

The architects of these cities have blood on their hands. They encourage illegals to make the journey with promises of free health care and education and then act surprised - and blame the administration - when these poor people die on their way to break our laws.  

Finally, we have Congress, so blinded by their hatred for their political opposites that for months Democrats insisted there was, in fact, no crisis on the border. “Manufactured,” they said. Once the situation became so gothic it was no longer deniable, politicians began bickering instead of immediately allocating money to ease the humanitarian crisis and beef up security.

America desperately needs a bipartisan solution to our porous border with Mexico. Instead, after months of political parlor games, the House finally passed a $4.5 billion bill with no money for security, no money to track down human traffickers and no money for more beds. It will not pass the Senate, which passed a bill of its own - a bipartisan bill, no less - that includes both relief and security funds.

What are the chances these pandering politicians will come together to pass a measure before they flee Washington for their extended Independence Day holidays?

Meanwhile, facilities along the border are flooded with illegals. In May alone, 132,887 entered the country. Children are being kept in substandard conditions, as they were during the Obama administration when the media didn’t care.

What we have today is a heartbreaking, lawless, disgraceful mess.

To be a sovereign nation, we need secure borders and strong immigration laws that allow us to control who comes into the country and in what numbers. To be humane, we need to care for the people who are here.

Until Congress acts, there will be nothing but sad pictures. 

And blame. So much blame.

Note: Late Thursday afternoon, House Democrats backed down and passed the bipartisan Senate bill, which not only funds relief for humanitarian purposes, but addresses border security. Hard-line leftists in the House voted against it, content to leave people in misery as they pushed for open borders.