Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Three Months Since Republicans Blocked Bipartisan Legislation To Secure The Border

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on MAGA Republicans’ culpability in the current crisis at the border and their refusal to work bipartisan to pass the bipartisan border bill. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Precisely three months ago, something truly stunning happened here on the Senate floor: Senate Republicans filibustered the strongest, most comprehensive border security bill Congress has seen in a generation.

They did it for one reason only: Donald Trump – hell-bent on using the border for political gain – told them to do so.

The situation at the border is unacceptable. Everyone knows that. Senate Democrats know it. The President knows it. And the American people know it too.

A few months ago, as Senators worked on the supplemental, Democrats tried to find a long-sought solution to America’s broken immigration system.

Again, Democrats have made clear the situation at the border is unacceptable. That’s why, for months, we sat down with Republicans to craft the strongest border security bill in a generation, endorsed by the Border Patrol union, very conservative.

I salute Senators Murphy, and Sinema, and Lankford for working so hard on the bill. But Donald Trump told Republicans to kill the bill, because, and he was explicit he wants to exploit the chaos at the border for political gain.

He even said, “Please, blame it on me.” He explicitly took credit for this tough border bill to go down. A bill that the Wall Street Journal editorial page called “a border bill worth passing”, they’re hardly left-wing liberals, that the Chamber of Commerce said was a “commonsense measure,” and which the President of the National Border Patrol Council called it “far better than the status quo.”

You’d think given the chance to pass the strongest border bill in decades that Republicans would have pounced at the opportunity. After all, how many times have we heard our Republican colleagues give speeches here on the floor about the emergency at the border?

How many times have we heard Republicans say, year after year, that Congress must act?

How many times have we seen Republicans take field trips down to the border taking pictures with the fence towering behind them, while bemoaning that the problem is only getting worse?

Apparently, that was all for show – all for show – because precisely three months ago, right here on the floor, Senate Republicans, in obeisance to Donald Trump, and I believe many of them knew he was wrong, but Senate Republicans on the Senate floor killed the best chance – the best chance – we’ve seen in decades to provide a solution to the border.

It’s pretty simple: Republicans can’t say that the border is an emergency but then refuse to take action. Republicans cannot claim to care about fixing asylum but then block the biggest changes to asylum law in decades.

Republicans cannot claim to care about our Border Patrol agents but then deprive them of the very tools and funding the Border Patrol has been asking for.

Our Republican colleagues may have given up on taking action on the border, but Democrats have not.

Democrats will make it clear which party is working to fix our broken border, and which party is conspiring to make the border worse.

We will challenge our Republican colleagues to join us once again on the border reforms American demand, to stop the flow of fentanyl, to improve asylum and vetting, and to ensure our border agents have the tools they desperately need.

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