Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), who is up for reelection this November, released an ad that touts his efforts to crack down on fentanyl trafficking across the southern border, yet the senator has an extensive history of opposing border security.
“It’s Sherrod Brown who sponsored the laws signed by President Trump to crack down on illegal drugs being smuggled across the border,” the ad says.
While those in the Buckeye State may appreciate Brown’s efforts to combat fentanyl smuggling, Brown has repeatedly opposed efforts to secure the border and often attacked Trump’s policies that would combat illegal immigration.
As recently as last Friday, Brown voted in lockstep with Senate Democrats to block Republican border amendments to the “minibus” spending bill. This includes:
- The Laken Riley Act which would require the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest illegal aliens who commit theft, burglary, larcency, or shoplifting offenses and mandate they are detained until they are removed from the country
- An amendment to bar the use of the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) One app to facilitate parole for migrants
- An amendment to bar funds from going to any jurisdiction that refuses to comply with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
- An amendment, according to Sen. Steve Daines’s (R-MT) office, that would require “ICE to detain all Special Interest Aliens (SIAs) until their claim is adjudicated or they are deported, so that the SIAs are not released at large into our communities to continue their malign activities. A Special Interest Alien is an alien who, based upon analysis of travel patterns and other information, is found to have a nexus to terrorism, espionage, or other malign actors.”
- The CLEAR Act would reaffirm the right of state and local law enforcement to apprehend, detain, or transfer illegal aliens to federal custody. It would also allow federal funds to be allocated to states to offset the cost of detention for illegal aliens and institute a host of new requirements on DHS, such as constructing or acquiring additional detention space, and taking aliens into custody within 48 hours of a request from a state or locality.
- The POLICE Act would make “assaulting a law enforcement officer, firefighter or first responder a deportable offense for illegal immigrants. Transportation of illegal aliens by air. Prohibit taxpayer funds from being used to secretly fly illegal aliens from other nations directly into states across the country for resettlement.”
Brown has for years opposed Trump’s immigration policies.
In 2020, Brown signed a Democrat letter condemning Trump’s use of Title 42, a measure to restrict asylum seekers,
“As a result, transgender people fleeing death threats in Central America, ethnic minorities fleeing conflict in Cameroon, families fleeing political persecution in Venezuela, and myriad other vulnerable people have been forced to remain in unsafe environments where their lives are at risk. As lawmakers, we are troubled by the blatant disregard for Congress’ explicit directions for how the federal government should process and adjudicate the cases of asylum seekers,” Brown and the other Senate Democrats wrote.
In 2015, Brown voted against a bill that would set a five-year mandatory minimum prison term for an illegal alien that who illegally reenters the country.
In 2018, the Ohio Democrat cosponsored a bill that would address the “family separation” issue at the border. However, as many have written, the bill fails to distinguish between migrant children at the border and U.S. citizen children in the country. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said at the time that the bill could encourage child trafficking.”
Brown was one of the many Senate Democrats to denounce Trump’s family separation policy; however, Brown stayed silent as Biden in 2023 considered implementing a similar policy.
In 2019, Brown called a border wall along the southern border “stupid” and “wrong.”
“He made a campaign promise, but his campaign promise was that Mexico would pay and he seems to have forgotten that. The wall is a bad idea and taking money away from our national defense is a really bad idea with what’s called the gate relocation at YARS. It’s a stupid idea; it’s wrong,” the Democrat said.
Bernie Moreno, Brown’s Senate Republican opponent, said, “A Narco controlled Mexico is America’s greatest security risk and we should act accordingly. Instead of fighting for Ohio families suffering from fentanyl poisoning, Sherrod Brown says on Meet the Press this morning that he’s ‘agnostic’ on how to ‘label’ the narco terrorists.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.