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Floor Speech

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Mr. MURPHY. So here is a snapshot of what happened. Republicans said that fixing the border was their top priority. They appointed a hardline conservative, my friend Senator James Lankford, to come up with a bipartisan bill to fix the border. They said that if Lankford can get the deal, they would support it.

We got that deal. If it had passed, it would have been the toughest border security bill in our lifetime. Arguably, it would have been the toughest border security bill ever--$20 billion for border security, more detention beds, more patrol officers, more asylum officers, more equipment to intercept fentanyl, a new power for the President to close parts of the border when crossings get too high, an end to the era in which an asylum applicant could spend 10 years in the country before their application was heard.

It was tough. It would have helped to fix the border. It was a compromise. Get this: It was supported by the conservative pro-Trump Border Patrol union and the left-leaning association of immigration attorneys. The Washington Post was for it, and the Wall Street Journal was for it.

It was a true compromise, but within hours of the bill's release, Republicans killed it. When it came to the floor, only four Republicans voted for the bill they asked for.

It has now been 22 days since Republicans killed the toughest border security bill of our lifetime--a bipartisan bill that would have helped us control the border. Why did Republicans do this? Because Republicans do not want to fix the border. The secret is out. For Republicans, the border is a moneymaking grievance machine, and if we passed our border bill and fixed the problem, Republicans literally wouldn't know what to do with their days. FOX would lose ratings. Republican Senators would lose clicks and donors. Donald Trump would lose an issue to campaign on. What would some of my Republican Senate colleagues do with their weekends if they couldn't go down to the border and dress up as Border Patrol officers and scream about fake outrage? If the border bill passed, if the border was under control, Republicans might have to get hobbies.

If the bipartisan bill to control our border had passed, our border would be more orderly, our immigration system would be vastly improved, and America would be better off and more secure, but, yes, Republicans would lose their moneymaking grievance machine--the broken border.

That is what happened. Republicans killed the toughest bipartisan border bill that they have ever seen because they don't want to fix the border. They want to keep it a mess because they think it helps them politically.

Twenty-two days since Republicans killed the toughest bipartisan border security bill in over a decade.

Do you know who does want to fix the border? President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress. Joe Biden asked for those additional resources to hire more Border Patrol Agents, to build more detention capacity, and to install more technology at the border to interrupt the fentanyl trade. Joe Biden helped write the bipartisan border bill which gave him those new powers I talked about.

Today, Joe Biden is going to be at the border to talk about his agenda to put border security first but also to make other badly needed changes to our immigration system, like improving our asylum system and getting a pathway to citizenship for people who have been living in the shadows of our society for far too long.

Donald Trump is going to be at the border today, too, but for a different reason. Donald Trump does not see the border as a problem that needs to be fixed; Donald Trump sees the border as a problem to be exploited. He openly brags about instructing his followers here in the U.S. Senate to kill the bipartisan border bill because its passage would have been good for Joe Biden and the country.

To Joe Biden, the border is a serious issue that he wants to fix, and he has a plan to do it. For Donald Trump and Republicans, the border is just a moneymaking grievance machine that they refuse to solve.

The problem is, nothing can pass in Washington without Republican support. I know there are Republicans who voted for the bipartisan bill--only four--but the rule is that Republicans refuse to support more resources, more patrol officers, more detention beds, and the rule is that they will vote against any bipartisan legislation to make the border more secure.

So 22 days since Republicans killed the toughest border security bill during our time in the Senate, and unfortunately the border is going to remain unresolved so long as Republicans don't want to solve it.

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