Sen. Cotton sounds alarm bell, says Biden’s border chaos now a ‘National Emergency’

Sen. Tom Cotton warned in an op-ed Tuesday that the worsening situation along the U.S.-Mexico border under President Joe Biden’s immigration policies has become a “national security” issue as he railed at Democrats for attempting to sneak an amnesty provision into an unrelated infrastructure spending bill.

“On his first day in office, President Biden rescinded the proclamation declaring a national emergency at the southern border. Then he cut off funding for the border wall and gutted virtually all Trump-era policies to reduce illegal immigration, including the successful Remain in Mexico policy,” Cotton, an Arkansas Republican and former U.S. Army infantry officer who deployed to Iraq.

“The consequences of Biden’s ‘see no evil’ approach to chaos at the border have been predictable,” he added.

“Record numbers of illegal aliens from Central America and elsewhere are now streaming across the border, taking full advantage of the Democrats’ open-border policies,” he continued.

Cotton noted that in June, U.S. Border Patrol and immigration enforcement officials encountered 188,000 migrants trying to cross illegally into the U.S., “the highest number in more than two decades.”

He went on to note that 1 million people have crossed illegally into the country so far this year, but that’s only the number of migrants encountered by border authorities.

“Thousands more surely snuck into the country undetected, along with untold amounts of deadly drugs like heroin and fentanyl that are killing our fellow Americans in record numbers,” he wrote.

The Arkansas Republican went on to say that Democrats and the Biden administration could fix the situation immediately if they wanted to.

“If the Democrats wanted to stop this rising tide of illegal immigration and drugs, they would reverse course now and call this situation what it is: a national emergency,” he wrote.

“They would then build the border wall, reinstate the enhanced border protections put in place by the Trump administration, and deport lawbreakers,” he added.

He said Senate Democrats, with their thin majorities in the House and Senate, are likely to pass $4.1 trillion in new spending using the budget reconciliation process that allows them to bypass the 60-vote filibuster in the upper chamber.

Cotton added “they’re trying to use this reckless spending package to grant legal status to millions of illegal aliens, who are taking jobs that could otherwise be filled by American workers.”

“Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said he expects this amnesty to go into effect within ‘just a couple of months, if all the necessary steps are taken,’” Cotton continued, quoting his chamber colleague.

“That means, before the year is out, Democrats could place millions of people who are here in violation of our laws on a path to citizenship,” he wrote.

“Such a sweeping amnesty would make a mockery of our laws and encourage millions more foreigners to cross into our country illegally in the expectation that they will be legalized by a future Democratic Congress,” he said, adding that the legislative scheme is “a blatant violation of the rules of the Senate.”

“But it’s at least amusing to note how the Democrats are trying to justify this policy in a budget package; they are admitting that such an amnesty would have a dramatic and large effect on our welfare system and domestic spending,” he said.

Cotton went on to predict that the amnesty, especially, will have a long-term negative effect on all Americans.

“This policy would wreak havoc on our social safety net as the world’s poor flood into America for generous, taxpayer-funded benefits,” he wrote.

“While this is a shocking admission by amnesty advocates, every American knows that the primary purpose of amnesty policies is to provide amnesty, not to increase welfare spending.”

He concludes: “We need to scuttle the Democrats’ stealth amnesty and send a message loud and clear to Joe Biden: the wide-open southern border is an emergency that harms us all, whether he wants to admit it or not.’