This is how conservatives reacted to the Senate border agreement: 'It is a betrayal of the American people'

On Sunday, the Senate unveiled a bipartisan Border Security Bill, negotiated primarily between Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and James Lankford (R-OK). However, the text was quickly rejected by Democrats and Republicans, who did not take long to speak out to condemn the initiative.

The agreement, negotiated for months and contemplates an expenditure of 118 billion dollars, was well received by President Joe Biden, who assured that it would be suitable for "securing the border."

Schumer intends to call a procedural vote as soon as possible to speed up the process and allow the legislation to enter the floor this week. For his part, Lankford defended its creation, arguing that it "will put a large number of new law enforcement tools in the hands of a future administration and will push the current one to stop the illegal flow once and for all."

Assuming all Democrats vote in favor, they only need 9 Republican senators to pass the law. However, the path to 60 votes still does not seem to be very clear. In addition to criticism within the GOP, Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) have already announced that they will oppose the border initiative.

Conservatives' reaction to the border agreement

For Donald Trump, currently the favorite to win the Republican nomination for president, the legislation will derail Lankford's career.

"I think it's a very bad bill for his career, especially in Oklahoma. I won in Oklahoma," he said in an interview with Dan Bongino.

"I know those people. They are great people. They're not going to be happy about this. Nobody's going to be happy about this, but the people in Oklahoma are, these are serious MAGA, these are serious people. They're not going to be happy about this, Dan, when they see this. This is crazy. This is crazy, this bill," he added.

Vivek Ramaswamy, former presidential candidate, also had no praise for the border agreement. "We don't need a new border law. We need a new President to enforce existing laws," he said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) joined House Republican leaders in condemning Lankford's legislation. According to them, the legislation "fails in every policy area needed to secure our border and would actually incentivize more illegal immigration."

"Any consideration of this Senate bill in its current form is a waste of time," House GOP leaders said in a joint statement. "It is DEAD on arrival in the House. We encourage the U.S. Senate to reject it," they added.

In the Senate, one of the first to express herself was Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), who did so through her X account, formerly Twitter.

"I will never vote to make illegal immigration legal. It is against the law for an individual to cross illegally into our country - it is incredible that it still has to be said. We are a nation of law and order, and yet the Biden administration has allowed more than 8.8 million illegal immigrants to flood our border," she wrote.

She was joined by Mike Lee (R-UT), who said that "the border agreement is even worse than we thought" and then added that "no one who cares about the security of our borders should support it. It is a betrayal of the American people."

The senator from Utah even assured that the agreement works as evidence that the GOP needs new leadership in the Senate, making clear reference to Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

For Rick Scott (R-FL), the legislation simply "does NOTHING to actually secure the border. A vote in favor of this bill is a total endorsement of Biden's failed border policies," he added on X.

Another critic was Rand Paul (R-KY), a historic opponent of sending money to other countries. In his defense, he took the opportunity to shoot at those who negotiated the agreement on social media.

"Instead of working to secure the border, Lankford, McConnell, Schumer and others were doing the opposite, taking advantage of any opportunity to send foreign aid to other countries and use other avenues to squander taxpayer spending," he said.

Tom Cotton (R-AK) joined his colleagues' defense and did not find many positive points in the law. "I've reviewed the bill, I don't think it will solve our border crisis, and it could make it worse. I will oppose it. Joe Biden created this crisis by design. He can and should reverse his open border policies today," he wrote on X.