President Biden bashed Republicans for blocking the border security legislation in the Senate Thursday, arguing that the GOP doesn’t care about securing the U.S.’s southern border.
“Congressional Republicans do not care about securing the border or fixing America’s broken immigration system. If they did, they would have voted for the toughest border enforcement in history. Instead, today, they put partisan politics ahead of our country’s national security,” he said in a statement.
Senators voted 43 to 50 to take down the proposal, in a widely expected outcome, which marks the second time the legislation negotiated over the fall and winter by Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) has been blocked.
Biden, in his statement, noted that the bill would have hired more Border Patrol agents, immigration judges and asylum officers, as well as provided funding for technology to detect and stop fentanyl trafficking.
Biden added that Republicans, by voting against the bill, also “rejected an agreement that would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to temporarily shut down the border when the system is overwhelmed.”
He said that he’s “committed to taking action to address our broken immigration system.” Republicans have called on Biden to use his executive authority to fix the situation at the border.
The White House earlier this week focused on fentanyl trafficking at the U.S. southern border to urge Republicans to vote for the bill, calling on lawmakers to choose to save lives over politics.
The White House has also hit Republicans for not passing the bipartisan border bill when it was first unveiled, after former President Trump urged them to oppose it so the border would stay a major issue for Election Day.
Biden spoke Monday with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to push for passage of the bill.