Thune: It’s Time to Fund Border Security and End the Shutdown
“I hope [Democrats] will think better of this government shutdown and decide that their national security obligations are more important than catering to the far-left wing of their party.”
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) this week discussed Congress’s responsibility to protect our nation and the lack of support from Democrats to fund increased security at the border.
Thune’s remarks (as prepared for delivery):
“Mr. President, it’s difficult to believe that we’re almost two weeks into a partial government shutdown because Democrats don’t want to fund increased security for the border.
“Border security is a national security requirement, and every member of Congress, Republican and Democrat, should take seriously our responsibility to protect our nation by ensuring that our borders are secure.
“At one time Democrats understood this:
“In 2006, the Democrat leader and the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted for legislation to authorize a border fence.
“They were joined in their vote by then Senators Biden, Clinton, and Obama.
“In 2013, every Senate Democrat supported legislation requiring the completion of a 700-mile fence along our southern border.
“This legislation would have provided $46 billion for border security and $8 billion specifically for the wall.
“Nearly every Senate Democrat supported $25 billion in border security funding just last February.
“And yet today Democrats would rather keep part of the government shut down than provide the money we need to secure our borders.
“What changed?
“Our national security situation certainly hasn’t changed.
“Our borders are not sufficiently secure, and as we have seen, they’re a target for illegal entry.
“Over the past year, illegal border crossing apprehensions have shot up by more than 30 percent.
“The holes in our border security leave us susceptible to illegal entry by gang members, human traffickers, drug dealers, terrorists, and weapons traffickers.
“Yet Democrats are refusing to budge on sorely needed border security funding.
“Why?
“Because Democrats are reluctant to oppose the far-left wing of their party, which increasingly seems to be advancing the preposterous notion that we don’t really need to secure our borders at all.
“Mr. President, every nation has to secure its borders.
“Preventing dangerous individuals and goods from entering is an essential part of every country’s security.
“And as my Democrat colleagues have proved in the past, they know this.
“I hope they’ll think better of this government shutdown and decide that their national security obligations are more important than catering to the far-left wing of their party.
“It’s time to fund our border security and end this shutdown.”
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Why did all the Republicans not get this done when they had the majority and presidency for two years? The story is always, “We have the House, give us the Senate; we have the House and Senate, give us the Presidency”; what was the excuse then? Wasn’t the “nuclear option” available? I don’t know, but it seems that the Republicans are always fighting among themselves (Romney, you twit; Flake, you twit; Corker, you twit), and the Democrats always come together to further their anti-American goals.
Thune, Rounds, Johnson, don’t just talk tough, do the tough work, attack the Democrats for putting illegal aliens ahead of American citizens (a/k/a, you, your children, your family, your friends), and get things done!
Because the nuclear option goes both ways. The Democrats will control Congress again and when the Republicans are in the minority in the Senate we would not want to become irrelevant. I don’t like it sometimes but the tyranny of a simple majority is frightening considering what is coming from the left.
Didn’t the Democrats use it at one time? They would use it regardless as they are all about power, not about what is best for the country. I don’t trust the Democrats any further than I could throw Gerald Nadler.
Trump one week: “I will own this shut down.”
Trump the next week: “OMG COME ON DEMS.”
Maybe coordinate a consistent friggin message.
The Republicans, including President Trump, need to present a consistent, united front against the rampaging horde which is the Democrat party; if they want to disagree they should do it behind closed doors instead of grandstanding (Romney, Flake, Corker, the late Senator McCain).
Where has Thune been for the last two years!?
doing his job every day if you bothered to notice.
Why are we even having this shutdown problem? If Mexico is really going to pay for it, then how is it a federal budget issue?
Oh, and I think it is always nice, when Senators take the time to have a photo taken of them with one of their interns, too. 😉
MEXICO WILL PAY FOR THE WALLAMI
There was once a suggestion that we should tax the money being sent back to Mexico or put on credit card balance to be siphoned off in Mexico. We should collect 15% on the gross amount sent via credit card or other transfers to help cover border security and social costs of the illegals.
If you ever had the opportunity to know how the illegals operate you know they use false SSI numbers and live multiple people in the household. They maximize the number of exemptions so little tax is taken out of the pay if any at all. We get to pay for all their costs. It is long past time to wake up this.
If the Feds are accepting their false SS numbers, then that means they are paying in without ever being able to benefit from the program.
As far as the exemption trick, well, as long as that is the number then that is the tax law….. Based on your logic, the Duggars have been cheating for years.
A bunch of false equivalency rhetoric. We need more funding for data processing and communication in the INS, ICE, and law enforcement to track the primary cause of illegal immigration, overstayed visas. A concrete wall is a waste of money to build and the continued maintenance costs for an ineffective solution would just add to the national debt. Which brings up another issue, what is the requested money for exactly? This administration has yet to coherently spell out what is to be built, and the stories have never corroborated. Is it a concrete barrier? Steal? Fencing? Personnel?
No plan should equate to no money. This is fiscal irresponsibility at its worst: requesting and spending money for the sake of winning an argument without a clear plan.
You haven’t been listening. Ask the border patrol about a secure barrier when the hordes come at you.
No, they haven’t been listening and neither have many Republicans in DC. Trump’s first briefing of 2019 featured border patrol agents and other officials speaking about the need for a wall and the impact it makes. It’s easy to find, they could just YTube it!
What I find inhuman is the amount of child sex-trafficking and death along the border and Democrats refuse to address it.
I think Thune is deliberately conflating border security with the wall. Democrats are ready to end the shutdown and fund border security, just not the wall.
Of course he is. Thune doesn’t want the wall any more than does Pelosi.
Is it about low-wage workers? Illegals will work for nothing and are afraid to complain, how many companies benefit from that?
I’m sure that is part of it. E-verify should be mandatory, and companies caught with illegal workers should be heavily fined; make an example of them and maybe the other companies will start following the law.
Trump is willing to end the “shutdown” as soon as the Democrats can find $5 billion to fund a part of the wall. Many of these are the same Democrats who were willing to fund a wall several times in the past all the way back to 2006. Schumer even was willing to trade $26 billion for a wall in exchange for a pathway to citizenship for “dreamers”. Trump even made that offer and suddenly Schumer changes his mind. They don’t care about security. They don’t care about the crime along the border. They don’t care that children are being used as shields. They don’t care that women are raped and murdered. They just want to stop a wall. Instead they are willing to spend more than the $5 billion Trump wants to prevent a wall. Workers will get back pay. Fees will not be collected.
democrats’ rhetoric about being FOR border security, just not a wall, is dissonant noise. meaningless. not a farthing, not a kopeck for a trump plan, is their pose.
The Democrats will do anything to deny Trump the wall because they are children having a tantrum; it is payback for getting the honorable judge Kavanagh onto the Supreme Court. The Democrats don’t take America’s sovereignty or security seriously.
Trump’s company, for one. It’s being investigated for giving out fake green cards and SS numbers to undocumented workers, possibly human trafficking victims.
It’s certainly not just Trump’s company. Didn’t Ann Beal mention that Smithfields advertises job incentives in southern countries? Wasn’t there a recent bust of businesses hiring illegals here in the midwest? I even think Mollie Tibbetts killer illegally work on a farm in IA?
And, isn’t the H1-B visa system the most abused? I think Rounds pushes hard for those? We want border security and I’m not sure Thune or Round is really listening to us.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/06/us/trump-bedminster-golf-undocumented-workers.html
https://www.ksfy.com/content/news/Man-takes-plea-deal-in-federal-immigrant-worker-case-502058962.html
Wasn’t a Huron police chief put on leave for testifying about businesses employing illegal aliens?
And, the Rapid City area has seen it’s fair share of illegals being employed at dairy farms.
I’m not discounting your points on Trump’s businesses, but I’d like to keep the focus in our backyard. You know, where me or my daughter could be raped and murdered like Mollie Tibbets. Border security will help prevent this. We stand with Trump; keep it shut down.
officer Schmidt was put on leave then fired……https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTrO9R9-c5c&t=32s
Interesting choice of icon in the letterhead.
v. the verb “buffalo” meaning to outwit, confuse, deceive, intimidate, or baffle.
Hi Senator Thune,
Remember when you talked with Barack Obama and asked him what he was going to do about the national debt? Now that our party is in power, we need to do something about that.
The debt is the real threat to our national security, not the Southern border. Just look at Venezuela. Please urge Congress to stop wasting billions of dollars… or the American dollar will be replaced by some kind of crypto currency, and a stampede of mass emigration will take all our businesses away.
Kind regards,
David