U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) outlined conditions for her support of a border security deal to avert the second government shutdown in less than two months. The comments came on Fox Business News’s “Mornings With Maria.”
The tentative deal in Congress provides $1.38 billion for border security funding, Fox Business News said Tuesday. The video is available online here.
President Donald Trump held a “Finish the Wall” rally Monday in El Paso to kick off his 2020 presidential campaign and to continue the push for the $5.7 billion border wall, The Tennessee Star reported Tuesday.
Blackburn, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the pending deal would add 55 miles of wall to the border. She said she did not know if Trump would sign the deal.
Americans want to end “the influx of drugs and sex traffickers, human traffickers, gangs, that really make our communities unsafe,” Blackburn said.
Although some reports indicate the number of beds in ICE detention facilities for “violent criminal illegal aliens” is reduced in the tentative deal, the numbers don’t bare that out. The “deal” limits the number of average daily beds to a number below what Trump requested, but it is still an increase over the average daily bed count in 2018.
Blackburn said she has toured the camps and she invites any Democrats who have not visited to do so.
When asked if she would support the deal, Blackburn said, “I’m not going to support something that reduces the number of beds or says we’re going to open up our borders.”
Also regarding border security, Blackburn tweeted, “Until we secure our borders, every state is a border state and every town is a border town. This is what that means.”
Until we secure our borders, every state is a border state and every town is a border town. This is what that means⬇️ https://t.co/Rli9lFIcTS
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) February 11, 2019
Blackburn was referencing a White House tweet saying, “Republicans and Democrats should be able to agree on the need to secure our southern border to protect our citizens.” That tweet showed a meme saying, “In the past two years… immigration officers arrested 266,000 criminal aliens charged with or convicted of 100K assaults, 30K sex crimes, 4K killings.”
Republicans and Democrats should be able to agree on the need to secure our southern border to protect our citizens. pic.twitter.com/F8vAirDM8h
— The White House 45 Archived (@WhiteHouse45) February 9, 2019
Blackburn reasserted her commitment to a border wall in late January after President Trump reached a compromise agreement with Democrats to temporarily re-open the government.
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Jason M. Reynolds has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist at outlets of all sizes.
Photo “Marsha Blackburn” by Fox Business.
I’ve heard that we need immigrant to work,
America, if you had not murdered 55 million in these abortion clinics, we’d have plenty of workers.
And your solution of fixing the problem is coming back to be more of a “CURSE” than a “BLESSING”.
BTW, the curse is just starting.
Thanks, Senator Blackburn! MAGA and Finish the Wall!