On Wednesday, The Hill published an op-ed by U.S. Senators Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) criticizing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) reintroduction of the February border legislation. The senators described this move as a political maneuver aimed at providing vulnerable Senate Democrats with political cover rather than addressing border security.
The full op-ed can be found on The Hill’s website, with key excerpts included below:
“Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced over the weekend that the Senate would be revisiting the border ‘deal’ that failed miserably back in February. This is a desperate political stunt during an election year.”
Johnson and Tuberville expressed their discontent with the process and content of the bill: “As two Republican senators, we cannot sit idly by while Democrats mislead the American people about what this immigration bill would do. When negotiations for this supposed border compromise began, we were hopeful that Democrats had come to their senses and decided to secure the border. Unfortunately, this rushed ‘deal’ was made behind closed doors without input from most Republicans. Not surprisingly, that bill killed itself in less than 24 hours — with most Republicans and five Democrats eventually voting against it.”
The senators also criticized specific provisions of the bill: “The bill would also codify Biden’s catch-and-release policies, as it actually requires illegal aliens to be released while they are being processed. The American people are just supposed to accept that millions of poorly vetted illegal aliens will continue to move into their communities, taking their jobs, overcrowding their schools and driving up rent prices, but now with the federal government’s explicit imprimatur.”
Furthermore, they raised concerns about fiscal responsibility: “The bill also spends $20 billion that we don’t have, further mortgaging our children’s future. It primarily spends the money, not to secure the border, but to more efficiently process and disperse illegal immigrants throughout America — the vast majority of whom do not have valid asylum claims. It doesn’t spend a nickel to complete the wall.”
In response to Schumer’s proposal, Johnson and Tuberville highlighted alternative legislative efforts by Republicans: “Tonight, our Republican colleagues are taking to the Senate floor to force votes on serious legislation that would actually fix the problems at the border. One of the bills we will put forward is the Border Safety and Security Act, which requires the secretary of Homeland Security to completely shut down the border until the federal government has operational control of who is coming into our country. This bill is just one example of many options Democrats could consider if they were actually serious about securing our border.”
They concluded by urging Democratic senators to reconsider their stance: “Instead, Democrats are using a broken bill to fool voters into thinking they are serious about border security. Don’t buy it. The American people don’t want a messaging exercise — they want to feel safe in their neighborhoods. If Sens. Tester, Brown, Rosen, Casey and Baldwin were listening to the concerns of their constituents, they would ditch Chuck Schumer’s border stunt and vote for our commonsense legislation to actually secure the border and protect American citizens.”
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