Democrats' Insistence on Open Borders Blocks Assistance to Allies Abroad
(December 6, 2023, Washington, D.C.) The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) commends Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans for insisting that national security begins at home and for demanding that Congress incorporate immigration policy changes as part of any aid package to allies who are defending their own sovereignty.
Today, Senate Majority Chuck Schumer attempted to proceed on a foreign aid package that ignores the crisis raging at the southern border. The budget supplemental legislation offered by Senate Democrats merely seeks to throw more money at the problem so border agents can process and release illegal aliens into the country faster. It does nothing to address the ruinous policies that have created the greatest surge of illegal immigration in U.S. history. "It makes no sense to allocate billions of dollars to help other countries defend their security, while leaving our borders wide open. Senate Republicans are right to insist that meaningful changes to Biden administration policies that have created this national security crisis be attached to the aid package," said Dan Stein, president of FAIR.
Fortunately, Senator Schumer's efforts to move this legislation forward failed as Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Minority Whip John Thune and the entire Republican caucus were united in stopping the motion to proceed on the legislation. That motion required 60 votes to pass; Democrats could not even get a majority, as it failed 49-51.
In blocking this vote, Senate Republicans demonstrated that they understand how important reforming immigration policy is to Americans and how Americans understand that border security is national security. In a letter sent to congressional leaders today, a broad coalition of public interest groups and policy experts representing millions of Americans demanded inclusion of H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, passed by the House in May, in the bill. Policy changes set forth in H.R. 2 must be "the bare minimum required to regain control of America's southern border and provide credibility for our nation's immigration system," states the letter to which FAIR is a signatory.
"Intransigence on the part of the Biden administration and congressional Democrats about stopping the border crisis is the impediment to approving foreign aid," charged Stein. "To be clear, it is not Senate Republicans who are standing in the way of this assistance. Rather, it is the administration's insistence on keeping America's borders wide open and blocking any meaningful policy changes that might end the rampant abuse of our asylum system that is holding up approval of the foreign aid package.
"Without real reforms to asylum policy, expedited removal of people attempting to defraud our asylum system, and an end to the Biden administration's wholesale abuse of humanitarian parole authority, the chaos at our borders and in our cities, and threats to national security, will grow even more dire," continued Stein.
"There is bipartisan support for approving an assistance package to help our allies fight the same enemies and adversaries that threaten our own security. But tragically, that aid is being held hostage to the narrow, ideologically-driven agenda of the Biden administration and its allies in Congress whose policy is open borders and mass amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, no matter the danger or the cost to the American people," Stein concluded.
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