Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) blasted Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) on Friday for taking what Schumer’s office called “a cynical field trip to the border” after both Republican senators voted last week to block a bipartisan border deal that Graham was involved in negotiating.
Graham is coming under fire from colleagues for voting against Ukraine funding after he insisted on adding border security provisions to an emergency defense spending package and even though he and his staff had a hand in negotiating the border language.
He was supposed to lead a bipartisan delegation with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) to meet with NATO allies this weekend at the Munich Security Conference but canceled his trip to visit the southern border at Eagle Pass, Texas.
“It’s very nice that Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott are taking a field trip to the border. But their actions speak louder than words,” Schumer said in a statement, referring to their votes against the bipartisan border deal, which received the endorsement of the National Border Patrol Council.
“Sens. Graham and Scott voted to keep the status quo and against the necessary resources to secure the border. We hope their trip will make them see the light and tell Trump to support our bipartisan border agreement,” he said.
Schumer is trying to flip the script on Republicans, who traditionally have held an advantage with voters on the issue of border security. Democrats highlighted Republican opposition to the border deal in the special election for New York’s 3rd Congressional District, which former Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi (N.Y.) won.
Democrats had expected Graham would support the bill since his staff had a chance to work with the negotiators, Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.), to shape the legislation.
But Graham said on the Senate floor that Schumer blocked Republicans from offering amendments to strengthen the border security reforms, so he couldn’t sell the legislation to allies in the House.
While Graham praised the proposal’s reforms to asylum law and the practice of paroling migrants into the country, he said it didn’t go far enough.
“There needs to be a cap on parole to make sure it’s not abused in the future,” he said, noting the Biden administration paroled more than 800,000 migrants in 2023.