In a speech on the Senate floor this week, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) slammed President Joe Biden and his administration's handling of the ongoing crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.
With time still remaining in the current fiscal year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have apprehended a record 2 million migrants that illegally crossed the border.
Tuberville lamented the record number of apprehensions, arguing the border problem was only "accelerating, not slowing, under this administration." According to the senator, Vice President Kamala Harris, who was placed in charge of addressing the border crisis, "has been a disaster."
"[T]he people of Alabama haven't forgotten what's going on at the southern border because we're seeing the same influx in our state," Tuberville outlined.
"In this fiscal year alone, we have surpassed 2 million apprehensions of illegal immigrants at our southern border for the first time, ever, in the history of our country," he added. "Last year, that number was over 1.7 million — showing the crisis at our border is accelerating, not slowing, under this administration."
Tuberville decried attempts to defend the numbers as a sign of progress.
"Some will try to twist those numbers to use as proof that enforcement is working, but that is obviously a red herring," Tuberville emphasized. "The staggering, staggering number of encounters and arrests only highlights — even more shocking — the number of illegal immigrants we never see, those who get away, what we call the 'got aways,' those we release into the United States — we release and they never come back. The truth is, we will probably never, ever get a true number of those who have entered our country illegally. We're a country of immigrants. We like immigration, but come here [legally].
"This position we are putting our law enforcement officials in is unacceptable, but this administration does nothing, does nothing to stop anything that's happening. Instead, they just tell us the border is secure when our president has not even visited the border in his 19 months in office."
The former football coach said the problem was not only a record number of people coming across the border illegally but also "unthinkable amounts of deadly fentanyl and other drugs are being smuggled into the country every single day."
"Drug cartels are more emboldened than ever to send as many deadly drugs as possible to the border because they know they can take advantage of the crisis that has been unfolding here for two years."
"As long as the border is wide open, cartels will take advantage of the situation," Tuberville said. "They're making billions of dollars a year by moving people, drugs into the United States, and it's getting worse every day. Americans are dying, cities are being overrun, criminals are getting rich — those are the consequences of President Biden's border crisis. Those are the problems that our Democrat colleagues have to fix."
As part of the solution to solve the border crisis, Tuberville pushed for the border wall to be erected, to reinstate the 'Remain in Mexico' policy and for Democrats to better support law enforcement efforts to enforce the border.
To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email trent.baker@1819news.com.
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