A furious Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) unloaded on House and Senate Republicans for their refusal to even consider a border deal bill that she helped negotiate over nearly four months, calling out their hypocrisy and banning them from visiting her border state.
“I have a very clear message for anyone using the southern border for staged political events. Don’t come to Arizona,” Sinema said in a speech from the Senate floor Wednesday shortly before the border deal failed in a vote. “Take your political theater to Texas. Do not bring it to my state because in Arizona, we’re serious. We don’t have time for your political games. We are not interested in you posing for the cameras in Arizona. We are busy.”
Sinema had worked since early October with Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) to come up with a raft of border security measures and funding that would be included in the supplemental funding bill that the White House proposed last year. The large majority of the $118 billion supplemental would help Ukraine and Israel fight Russia and Hamas, respectively.
The trio of bipartisan senators organized and worked, as Sinema said during her speech, through weekends and holidays.
“We produced a bill that finally, after decades of all talk and no action, secures the border and solves the border crisis. Our bill was ready for prime time. We were ready to bring the bill to the floor, open it up for debates and amendments — you know, how the Senate is supposed to work — and then pass the bill,” Sinema said during a fiery floor speech Wednesday afternoon.
“But less than 24 hours after we released the bill, my Republican colleagues change their minds. Turns out they want all talk and no action,” Sinema said. “I usually end my speeches by calling on the better angels of our nature. When we work together, we can solve problems. We did that here. And you decided no. You decided you don’t even want to debate it. You don’t want to amend it. You don’t want to tackle the problem. Partisanship won. The Senate has failed Arizona. Shameful.”
Sinema said Republicans have pivoted from the “clear and unified voice” the party had last September when they demanded border security be included in the national security bill.
“Finally, it seemed we had the opportunity to solve the nightmare,” Sinema said.
“We produced a bill many thought impossible. Our bill overhauls the broken system. It stops the misuse of parole, and it closes the border during surges, ensuring the quick detention and deportation of migrants who don’t have a legal right to be here. We end catch and release. We add more detention beds. We increase deportation flights. We quickly decide asylum claims,” Sinema explained. “We put Border Patrol back in the desert catching the bad guys and the drugs, and that’s why the National Border Patrol Council endorses our bill, not H.R. 2.”
House Republicans who immediately bucked at the bill when it was released Sunday have followed the lead of former President Donald Trump, who is on his way to becoming the Republican Party’s nominee for president this year.
Republicans were adamant H.R. 2, which essentially restarts Trump-era border initiatives that the Biden administration rescinded, was the only acceptable series of solutions to the border crisis.
Since Biden took office, more than 7.5 million illegal immigrants have been encountered attempting to enter the United States, and 6 million of that figure entered illegally between ports of entry, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. The Biden figure far exceeds the number of illegal immigrants encountered during the Trump administration’s four years and the Obama administration’s eight years combined.
Sinema said the border crisis will continue “devastating” her state, as evidenced by recent events.
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Last week, U.S. customs officers in Nogales seized 2.1 million fentanyl pills, Border Patrol agents recovered enough fentanyl in the Tucson desert to kill 340,000 Americans, and nearly 14,000 immigrants illegally entered the country in her state and were caught.
“Many of them are military-aged men coming from all across the globe,” Sinema said. “Our broken border system is a national security crisis.
