Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) will oppose the Senate pro-migration border deal, saying the long-hidden agreement — revealed just days before receiving a vote – “fails to change the state of the border crisis.”
Budd’s strong criticism places him on the growing list of senators publicly opposing the deal, which will likely require approval from at least a dozen or so Republicans in a Wednesday procedural vote to move forward.
He hit the bill for maintaining the status quo at the border, which continues to see record migrant encounters since President Joe Biden reversed most of the Trump administration’s effective border security measures beginning on his first day in office.
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“The bill normalizes thousands more border crossings per day, institutionalizes catch and release, bails out sanctuary cities, and gives President Biden the ability to delay border wall construction even longer,” Budd posted on X Monday.
“While I support efforts to boost our nation’s industrial base and support our ally Israel, my core principle has always been that we must secure our own border before we help other countries protect theirs. That is why I will vote no,” he declared.
The bill:
– Normalizes thousands more border crossings per day.
– Institutionalizes catch and release.
– Bails out sanctuary cities.
– Gives President Biden the ability to delay border wall construction even longer.
— Senator Ted Budd (@SenTedBuddNC) February 5, 2024
The border deal is attached to tens of millions of dollars in foreign aid in Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. The House previously passed a bill to aid Israel that included spending offsets, but the Senate refused to take it up.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) called the Senate deal “dead on arrival” in the House and announced he would move a new Israel aid bill without spending offsets the same week the Senate considers the broader border and foreign aid deal.
Although the deal’s few Senate Republican proponents — namely, Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who brokered the deal — tout funds in the deal for a wall at the southern border, the legislation provides a paltry $650 million to continue building a border wall but provides Ukraine $48 billion in American taxpayer money.
That is 75 times more for Ukraine than for a border wall on the United States-Mexico border.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
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