Several Senate candidates and Democratic Party lawmakers spoke out against border security policies despite the immigration crisis. As listed by Breitbart , Raphael Warnock, John Fetterman and Mark Kelly are some of the Democrats who reject additional border protection measures despite an immigration crisis in which approximately five million illegal immigrants have crossed the southern border since Biden has been president.
Support for sanctuary cities and rejection of Title 42
One of the Senate candidates most opposed to border security policies is, Raphael Warnock. The aspiring senator from Georgia voted against Title 42, a measure to expel illegal immigrants who may compromise public health. In addition, he supported funding for sanctuary cities. Thanks to his speech against border security, Warnock received numerous immigrant votes in the 2020 elections.
Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman said he is "very supportive" of sanctuary city policies because they make "everyone safer."
Also voting against Title 42 was Mark Kelly. The Democratic senator from Arizona rejected an amendment to prohibit the cancellation of contracts already allocated for border security measures. During the election debate against his opponent Blake Masters, Kelly claimed that he took on the Democratic Party for being in favor of border security. "When Democrats are wrong, like on the border, I call them out on it, because I’m always going to stick up for Arizona," the Arizona senator said. Statements that Breitbart was swift to highlight as false.
In 2018, Ohio Senate candidate Tim Ryan voted to allow illegal immigrants to vote in elections, despite first opposing it. In addition, Ryan endorsed defunding the border wall and supported increasing the number of immigrant visas in order to make it more difficult to deport illegal immigrants. The Democratic candidate also favored the use of public funding for the transportation of illegal immigrants to other states.
Criticism from the GOP
Meanwhile, Adam Laxalt, Republican Senate candidate for Nevada, accused Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of misleading Nevadans about border security:
He is desperately trying to fool Nevadans into thinking she cares about protecting our border because he is trailing in the polls. The truth is that she’s spent her time in the Senate opposing common sense border security efforts, supporting lawless sanctuary cities, and undermining efforts to stop criminal illegal immigrants.
Similarly, the GOP leadership criticized Democratic representatives who oppose securing the southern border. "In the face of the growing migrant crisis at our southern border, Senate Democrats have once again chosen to side with radical and progressive activists rather than with the vast majority of Americans," said one of the spokeswomen for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRC), Priscilla Ivasco.
Jonathan Turcotte, another NRC spokesman in the Senate, noted that Democratic Party representatives have "failed their most basic duty to secure the border and keep Americans safe" by voting against legislation to fund the border wall.
"The southern border is not secure."
One of the few dissenting voices within the Democratic Party is that of Texas Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar, who said the southern border is "not secure." Cuellar estimated that more than 5 million illegal immigrants have entered the country in the last two years:
No, the border is not secure. When you have 1.7 million individuals last year, and now another 2.7 million ... if you add the getaways, that's going to be over 5 million individuals in just two years. It's not secured and we've got to make sure that we have repercussions there.
Cuellar's words run counter to the Biden Administration's assessment. Vice President Kamala Harris stated that "the border is secure," and that the border crisis "is a priority" for the nation and for the White House.
According to an Ipsos poll, 54% of Americans believe that an "invasion" is taking place on the border with Mexico. In addition to the large number of illegal immigrants, there are other problems caused by the lack of border control, such as the entry of criminals and drug trafficking.
