On Tuesday, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) made clear what actions he will take if Democrats attempt to put amnesty measures into a package.
Republicans have been discussing how Democrats might try to push through amnesty legislation. As KQED reported last week, “As part of their ambitious $3.5 trillion budget plan to support families and spur job growth, top Senate Democrats included an immigration reform provision that could potentially offer a pathway to citizenship to millions of undocumented immigrants.”
Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) tweeted about the reports last week, saying, “Conservatives need to focus on a critical fight that hasn’t gotten enough attention: the Democrats’ effort to stuff amnesty into a reconciliation bill.”
🚨Conservatives need to focus on a critical fight that hasn’t gotten enough attention: the Democrats' effort to stuff amnesty into a reconciliation bill.
Here’s why this matters:
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) July 14, 2021
On Fox News’ “Hannity,” Graham discussed the issue of illegal immigration.
“If you have policies that incentivize illegal immigration, you’ll get more of it. If it’s policies that deter illegal immigration, you’ll get less. The dumbest idea in all of Washington would be to grant amnesty in an infrastructure bill without first securing the border,” Graham said.
“You would have an invasion beyond what you have today. If we legalized 100,000 people or a million people in the infrastructure bill, there would be a run on our border because everybody would get the message: They’re legalizing people in America. Let’s go and let’s go now,” he added.
“You have to secure the border before you grant one person legal status. If you don’t, you will lose control of America, of our sovereignty,” Graham went on.
“If they put amnesty into [a] $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill — that’s got nothing to do with infrastructure, it’s big government, higher taxes-— but if they put amnesty in that bill, I would try to deny them a quorum to pass that bill,” he said.
“To my Republican colleagues, what are we going to do if they load up the $3.5 trillion, really $5 trillion infrastructure bill with mail-in voting and with amnesty? What is our response? If you don’t like my idea, come up with one of your own. If we don’t fight back as hard as we can, they’re destroying the Senate as I speak,” he noted.
“They’re going to lead to an illegal immigrant invasion like we’ve never seen in the history of the country,” Graham argued. “So my idea is do anything and everything possible to stop this before it happens. Let the Democrats know that if you put legalizing illegal immigrants in the reconciliation bill, then we as Republicans will use everything available to us, including denying your quorum.”
On Tuesday, Representative Ashley Hinson (R-IA) spoke about the potential moves by Democrats to put amnesty into a bill on Fox Business.
Hinson said, “I think it’s very clear … amnesty is not infrastructure.”
“Infrastructure is roads and bridges and locks and dams and ports. It’s not allowing this surge across the border,” she added.
“The infrastructure bill, this spending package, is clearly not the place to be having the discussion about any immigration issue. We need to secure the border and focus on the real issue here which is infrastructure,” Hinson continued, saying, “… This is sneaking a policy into what should be a bill that’s focused on infrastructure spending.”
Graham made similar statements about illegal immigration on Monday when he told Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, “If you give one person legal status there will be a run on our border like you have never seen before…the dumbest idea in the history of the Senate, the history of the White House. It will lead to the breakdown of law and order beyond what you see today.”