Scott says Biden does not need legislation to secure the border
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., told US Newzs Digital on Monday that he will not vote on a Senate border and immigration deal to help Israel and Ukraine — arguing that aid to Israel should be cut separately and that President Biden already has the authority to end the border crisis.
“I hades no,” Scott said when asked if he would support the deal, released Sunday evening and put to a vote this week.
Related Post: “Great gift to Democrats”: Trump blasts Senate border deal as ‘horrendous’
Senate negotiators released a $118 billion supplemental spending deal package late Sunday that includes funding for Ukraine, and Israel, and about $20 billion for border and immigration-related matters.
The bill incorporates a new border authority, enabling Title 42-style expulsions when daily migration levels surpass 5,000 over a 7-day rolling average. It also tightens asylum eligibility while expediting the process grants additional work permits for asylum seekers, and allocates substantial funding for increased staffing at the border, immigration courts, and asylum offices.
The bill is facing significant criticism from conservatives, including in the Republican-controlled House, where lawmakers argue that the deal will legitimize high levels of illegal immigration, fund non-governmental organizations, and provide legal aid to illegal immigrants. Some on the left have also objected to the bill due to its failure to include a pathway to citizenship for certain undocumented immigrants already in the U.S.
Scott criticized the bill as “unsatisfactory and unnecessary,” contending that Biden can already secure the border without the power that Scott believes permits too many migrant crossings before activation. Biden has asserted that he cannot secure the border without addressing a “broken” immigration system and securing additional funding.
“I think it’s such a lie to think that Joe Biden needs Congress to act for him to secure the border,” Scott said.
He also objected that the bill is being coupled with $60 billion for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel, stating that those issues should be debated and passed separately.
“We’re going to spend $60 billion for Ukraine, and we already need accountability in the resources that we’re spending,” he said. “What brought us to this point, the crisis in Israel, $14 or so billion. We are making a critical mistake in using our ally Israel’s crisis to put more money into Ukraine and less real attention on the border,” he said.
“I’m thankful that we are finally having a conversation about the border, but it’s the wrong one. It should be in a silo. We should be fixing and securing our southern border, and the president of the United States can do that right now,” he said. “He undid what [former President Donald] Trump secured for us. Joe Biden did it by himself. He shredded a secure border with his actions as president.”
Scott, who recently suspended his 2024 presidential bid and endorsed Trump for the White House, stated that he would prioritize addressing Israel separately and then introduce a standalone bill to address the border crisis.
“It would acknowledge the fact that the vast majority of people coming across our border aren’t from Mexico,” he said. “Chinese nationals are coming across our southern border at record numbers; we see 150 plus countries represented on our southern border. So if we were to do an effective job, we would have these in silo packages so that we could confront the problem facing this nation, including what I believe are sleeper cells in our nation, because…the Biden administration, they have not monitored who’s coming in our country with an 85% release ratio, with 10 million people coming in by the election.”
Scott contrasted that with the stance taken by the Trump administration, which he sees as a success in controlling illegal migration into the U.S.
“The key was the desire to have a secure border number one,” he said. “The second was the tenacity and the fortitude to take the necessary steps to secure our border, to include the Remain in Mexico policy, to include seeking asylum in a country that’s contiguous with yours, to include looking at putting more focus on Mexico’s other border, not our border, and of course, the codifying a wall and the funding for it,” he said.