Senate Democrats blocked a measure that would have required the federal government to resume building the southern border wall and implement other border security measures to curb a massive influx of illegal immigration.
Lawmakers voted to reject a provision, 48-49, authored by Republican Sen. Ron Johnson that would have prevented the federal government from canceling construction contracts to build the border wall and implement other border security measures.
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Johnson offered the provision as an amendment to a $1.2 trillion infrastructure measure the Senate is aiming to pass by next week.
President Joe Biden canceled the construction of the border wall when he took office in January.
Illegal immigration this year has surged to historic levels, and the flow of migrants has overwhelmed the Border Patrol and immigration officials. More than 200 miles of border wall remains incomplete, and construction material has been left sitting on the ground, thanks to Biden’s directive.
“This administration is in a complete state of denial regarding the crisis that is on the border,” Johnson, of Wisconsin, said Wednesday. “President Biden is the root cause of this crisis.”
Johnson said the United States is averaging more than 6,000 border apprehensions every day.
“There was a time when securing the border was a nonpartisan issue,” Johnson said, pointing to border security legislation from 15 years ago that Democrats, including Biden, backed.
Democrats rejected restarting the wall construction and said $10 billion of the funding was wrongfully redirected by former President Donald Trump from military accounts and aimed at “well-connected contractors.”
Democrats said the Biden administration is reviewing the contracts and will work to begin “commonsense projects” along the border to ensure national security.
“We must not look back on the former administration’s boondoggle,” said Sen. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a West Virginia Republican and a key infrastructure negotiator, backed Johnson’s amendment.
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Capito said forthcoming numbers on border apprehensions in July will likely top 6,000 and that 150 miles of wall funding already approved by Congress are now in jeopardy as hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants have poured over the border.
“The border wall is infrastructure,” Capito said. “It’s infrastructure to keep America safe. It’s infrastructure to prohibit drugs from entering the country, and it’s infrastructure to control illegal immigration.”
Sen. Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat, said the U.S. has “a moral imperative” to look out for the people who arrive on the U.S. border seeking asylum and address the root causes of immigration in the countries people are fleeing.
