John Cornyn

09/20/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/20/2021 17:00

Cornyn: Biden Ignoring Southern Border Crisis, Not Too Late for Bipartisanship

'Yesterday, the Senate Parliamentarian confirmed what we already suspected, and that is our Democratic colleagues will not be able to use budget procedures to grant citizenship to millions of undocumented immigrants in a purely partisan budget reconciliation bill.'

'Our Democratic colleagues said they have a Plan B, and while I haven't seen any details about what that might entail, I seriously doubt it will succeed.'

'It's not too late for our friends across the aisle to abandon their partisan amnesty plan and work with us on this side to address the actual crisis at hand.'

WASHINGTON - Today on the floor, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) discussed the crisis at the southern border and Democrats' opportunity to change their minds and work on a bipartisan basis on immigration. Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn's remarks are below, and video can be found here.

"Since President Biden raised his right hand and took the oath of office on January 20, Customs and Border Protection has stopped more than 1.2 million border crossers. That's nearly triple the total number at this point in the Obama Administration and more than eight times the number of migrants stopped at this point during the Trump Administration. These numbers have real consequences."

"The guiding principle of the Biden Administration was whatever the previous administration did, we're going to undo it. But they forgot to put an alternative plan in place."

"Border Patrol, state, and local officials have been working around the clock to ease the humanitarian crisis that President Biden and his policies created, and they're being overwhelmed."

"Rather than address the crisis at the hand, our Democratic colleagues have spent the bulk of this year figuring out how to bend the rules of the Senate to grant citizenship to millions of people who entered this country illegally."

"Yesterday, the Senate Parliamentarian confirmed what we already suspected, and that is our Democratic colleagues will not be able to use budget procedures to grant citizenship to millions of undocumented immigrants in a purely partisan budget reconciliation bill. Our Democratic colleagues said they have a Plan B, and while I haven't seen any details about what that might entail, I seriously doubt it will succeed."

"Congress also has a duty to take action that can only be done in a bipartisan way. It's not too late for our friends across the aisle to abandon their partisan amnesty plan and work with us on this side to address the actual crisis at hand."

"Last April, Senator Sinema, the senior senator from Arizona, and I introduced the Bipartisan Border Solutions Act to address this unfettered flow of immigration."

"A number of groups have endorsed the bill - not partisan groups - and it constitutes a simple starting point that Democrats and Republicans should be able to agree on."