AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
More than 52,000 unaccompanied children have crossed the American border over the past year and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) still fervently believes there is not a border security problem.
“The border is secure,” he told The Hill after the Senate Democrats’ weekly policy lunch. “[Sen.] Martin Heinrich [(D-N.M.)] talked to the caucus today. He’s a border state senator. He said he can say without any equivocation the border is secure.”
He went on to say that his fellow senators should focus more on throwing money at President Obama, rather than worrying about border security.
Reid also disparaged a rare piece of bipartisan legislation that would deal with the border crisis at its root, proposed this week by Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn and Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar.
“From all the reports I’ve gotten, the answer for me is no, I won’t support it,” he told The Hill, claiming the legislation was too “broad” and saying that Obama’s ask for $3.7 billion was superior.
The Cornyn-Cuellar bill would amend the Wilberforce trafficking law by making the process the same for unaccompanied migrant children from Central America as it is for those from Mexico. Under current law, Mexican children are deported on a much shorter timeframe because they do not have the same due process rights.
The bill also makes an allowance for additional resources to be used for the purpose of gaining control of the southern border.
Maybe Reid should just stick to talking about the Koch brothers and the Washington Redskins.
