Thune: Democrats Have Made Their Choice; Republicans Will Fund Border Security Despite Them

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WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:

Thune's remarks below (as delivered):

"Mr. President, yesterday on the floor I discussed some of our accomplishments here in the Senate, and one of those accomplishments is restoring regular order consideration of appropriation bills.

"Unfortunately, in fiscal year 2025, we were forced to do a full-year CR after the failures of the previous Democrat majority and the Biden administration to enact full-year bills in a timely manner.

"But at the start of this year, we were on the verge of concluding an open, member-driven, and bipartisan appropriations process and passing the full complement of 12 full-year appropriations bills. 

"It's what I said I wanted to do when Republicans took the majority last year.

"And we were about to get it done.

"That is, until Democrats reneged on our bipartisan DHS funding bill - a bill, I might add, that included bipartisan reforms and money for additional body cameras for immigration enforcement.

"When they backed out of this deal, Democrats said they just needed two more weeks to negotiate additional reforms on immigration enforcement.

"Republicans were willing to do that, and we began negotiations.

"But then that two-week deadline came and went without much progress.

"And pretty soon it drug on into 40, 41, 42, 43, 45 days.

"And instead of agreeing to fund the Department of Homeland Security while negotiations continued, Democrats shut the department down.

"Meanwhile, the White House implemented reforms of its own.

"And as negotiations continued, the White House repeatedly offered Democrats a robust package of legislative reforms.

"But as the weeks dragged on, it became very clear that Democrats weren't interested in reforms at all.

"And eventually, they just walked away.

"Now why would they do that, Mr. President?

"If reforming immigration enforcement is as important as Democrats were claiming, why would Democrats choose to walk away from reforms?

"I suspect it's either that the reforms that the Trump administration implemented were adequate to solve the problem at hand, or - and I think this is the real reason - Democrats weren't interested in reforms at all.

"They wanted a political issue.

"Something that would please the far left.

"And apparently they decided that defunding law enforcement would be a winner for them.

"Because that's what we are talking about here, Mr. President.

"Democrats voted to defund border security.

"They voted to defund immigration enforcement.

"Not reform, Mr. President.

"Defund.

"And defund completely.

"It's really quite shameful.

"A few weeks ago on the floor, the Democrat leader said that ICE and Border Patrol are two agencies that 'nobody respects in this country.'

"Nobody respects Border Patrol and ICE, Mr. President, those are the Democrat leader's words.

"Apparently, the fact that there are men and women risking their lives against drug cartels and gang members doesn't merit respect from Democrats.

"Not only that, but Democrats apparently don't think we should have these agencies that go after criminals, stop illegal drugs from entering our country, fight human trafficking, and enforce our nation's immigration laws.

"And that last one is, I think, the real issue here, Mr. President.

"Do Democrats believe we should enforce our immigration laws?

"It really seems like they don't.

"For years now, Democrat-led cities and states have implemented sanctuary policies that prevent their law enforcement agencies from cooperating with immigration authorities.

"Those policies have had deadly consequences.

"The murder of Laken Riley is just one example.

"Yet Democrats still defend these misguided policies.

"Then, under President Biden, Democrats' embrace of open-border policies reached its zenith.

"The Biden administration clearly did not believe in enforcing our immigration laws, and the result was year upon year of record-breaking illegal immigration.

"As even the New York Times has reported, and I quote, 'After Mr. Biden became president, migrant encounters at the southern border quickly doubled, then kept rising. New arrivals overwhelmed border stations, then border towns, and eventually major cities like New York and Denver.'

"Still, Mr. President, Democrats embrace open borders.

"And make no mistake, that is exactly what Democrats are embracing when they opt for giving no funding - zero funding - to Border Patrol and ICE.

"What they're suggesting is that we have no physical presence at our borders.

"They're suggesting that we don't have law enforcement officers taking criminal illegal immigrants off of our streets.

"And I really have to wonder who they're doing this for.

"Because letting illegal immigrants enter our country unchecked and allowing criminal illegal immigrants to roam free is certainly not putting the American people first.

"Mr. President, Democrats have made their choice.

"They would rather have applause from the far-left 'defund the police' crowd than keep the American people safe.

"They would rather have a political issue this November than do their jobs.

"As I say, they've made their choice.

"Fortunately, Republicans can fund these critical agencies without Democrats' assistance.

"And we will be moving forward with the final steps of that process shortly.

"Mr. President, as I said at the top of my remarks, I wanted to restore regular order, bipartisan consideration of funding bills - and we were doing that.

"And despite Democrats' partisan games, we're still going to get the entire federal government funded.

"We're going to ensure our immigration laws are enforced and criminal illegal aliens are not allowed to live freely in our country.

"And if Democrats want to play partisan games and vote against border security, well, they're free to do that.

"But Republicans are going to do our jobs and ensure that law enforcement can do theirs."

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