U.S. Senator Steve Daines today joined Fox News’ America Reports in studio with John Roberts and Gillian Turner to discuss President Biden’s ongoing southern border invasion.
Daines on Criminals Flooding the Southern Border:
This is why Americans can’t wait to vote in November of 2024. I remember when we had President Trump here, he was negotiating with the Mexican government. That’s how we got the Remain in Mexico policy put in place. He told the Mexican government, ‘it’s going to be this way or else’, and that was the strength we need. And I mean, thank God for our sheriffs, for Governor Abbott, for the National Guard of Texas as well as Border Patrol who are trying to do their jobs. They’re in harm’s way. This is like a military operation right now that’s going on to try to protect this country. But you know, just last weekend, we got word they detained a Hezbollah terrorist that came from Lebanon. He comes across that same El Paso sector where we’re watching the video at the moment, and said “I’m a Hezbollah terrorist, I’ve been trained for the last seven years, I’m coming here to build bombs and kill people.” Thank God they arrested him. But this is what we’re up against in terms of the criminals and terrorists coming into our country. This is a national security issue. This is not an immigration issue.
Daines on Senate Democrats Blocking Effort to Stop Counting Illegal Immigrants Toward Congressional Redistricting:
You ask yourself, “Why? Why would Democrats be taking this position of kind of letting the chaos rain down there with some 9 million and counting coming into our country since Biden took office?” I’ll tell you one of the reasons why. Because, you know, the United States Census counts people, not citizens, as it relates to congressional districts and the Electoral College. We put a bill on the floor of the United States Senate, an amendment vote, two weeks ago that simply said the census should only count U.S. citizens, not just people, for the purposes of congressional district allocation and the electoral college. Every single Senate Democrat voted against that. That tells you a lot, John, about what’s going on right now.
Daines on President Biden’s Political Crisis:
Look, President Biden has to say something and the reason he went down to the border a couple weeks ago when Trump was on the border that same day was because he’s got a political crisis. I don’t think they really care about the border crisis; he has a political crisis. He knows it’s the number one issue for the American people. He knows this is going to doom his reelection efforts this fall. Look, talk is cheap. If you want to solve the problem, go right back to the policies that President Trump put in place, Remain in Mexico. Tell the Mexican government, “This the way it’s going to be.” That would be an incredible deterrence for what we saw just now in those shocking videos.
Daines on the “Laken Riley Act”:
Boy, I hope that passes in the Senate too. That’s in Chuck Schumer’s hands right now. Chuck Schumer has got control of that. And I don’t know if he wants to put that in the floor to make his members take a very tough vote. Senator Ted Budd and I want a vote on that in the United States Senate and, I’ll tell you, had this law been put in place, it would have saved her life. It simply says if somebody is arrested, an illegal in the country, they are detained in jail until they’re deported back to their country. That would have saved Laken Riley’s life. The man that killed Laken Riley committed crimes in New York and then went to Athens, Georgia, because it’s a sanctuary city. That’s the backstory in all this. If this law had been in place, Laken Riley would likely be alive today.