Amid Border Crisis, Democrats Block Bills to Detain Violent Criminal Migrants and Fight Trafficking
‘The Administration wasted no time rolling back the policies from the prior administration that had guarded against this exact outcome. And south of the border — message received. Some migrants are arriving with Biden campaign flags and t-shirts. One arriving person said, quote, ‘Biden promised us that everything was going to change.’ And what about Democrats here in Congress?’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding the border crisis:
“The crisis on our southern border continues to escalate.
“CBP is tracking the largest surge in migrant apprehensions in 20 years. Unaccompanied children are literally piling up in close quarters. It turns out when politicians spend a two-year campaign advertising amnesty, people listen.
“And as one senior CBP official said, there is, quote, ‘no end in sight.’
“The Administration still refuses to even admit there’s a crisis, much less address it. We keep hearing strange mixed messaging from the White House podium like ‘now is not the time to come’ — as if there will be a good time to break the law and come illegally, and the White House will let us all know when that is.
“The Washington Post put it gently. Quote: ‘Administration officials have been plagued by muddled messaging’.
“That’s an understatement.
“But actually, when you look at Democrats’ actions, the message isn’t mixed at all. That’s the problem. For months on the campaign trail, President Biden spoke directly to potential migrants. At one point, he said, quote: ‘You want to flee… you should come’.
“President López Obrador of Mexico himself stated this week that President Biden’s campaign created expectations that ‘caused Central American migrants, and also from our country, wanting to cross the border, thinking that it is easier to do so.’ End quote.
“On Inauguration Day, the President followed through: Five executive orders to roll back immigration enforcement and open the border. The Administration wasted no time rolling back the policies from the prior administration that had guarded against this exact outcome.
“And south of the border — message received. Some migrants are arriving with Biden campaign flags and t-shirts. One arriving person said, quote, ‘Biden promised us that everything was going to change’.
“And what about Democrats here in Congress?
“Are the House Democrats rising to the occasion with solutions? Not exactly. They prioritized passing another amnesty bill. They doubled down on the wrong direction and the wrong incentives.
“The situation is raising eyebrows among Democrats’ own rank-and-file. As one Texas Democrat put it, quote, ‘When you create a system that incentivizes people to come across… that immediately sends a message”.
“Here in the Senate, our Democratic colleagues decided to go the route of obstruction.
“Yesterday, Republicans tried to pass serious proposals to help address parts of the immigration system. Democrats rejected every one of them.
“Senator Ernst had a proposal to require detention for migrants charged with violent crimes. Not exactly a radical idea. Democrats blocked it.
“Senator Cruz has legislation to raise the stakes for repeated illegal entry. Not exactly rocket science. Democrats blocked that too.
“Senator Blackburn and Senator Lee tried to combat child trafficking within the asylum process. Democrats even blocked that.
“The farthest-left ideology on these issues is keeping Washington Democrats from upholding the basic responsibility of government: ensuring the integrity of our borders and protecting our national security.”
Related Issues: Immigration, Senate Democrats
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