Sinema called on Senate colleagues to take responsibility for their own decisions, and warned against bringing political theater to Arizona if they don’t want to actually secure the border
WASHINGTON – Arizona senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema delivered remarks on the floor of the U.S. Senate today ahead of the vote on the bipartisan border security bill she crafted.
Click HERE to watch Sinema’s floor speech.
The Senator’s bipartisan legislative package is the result of months of good faith negotiations with Republican Senator James Lankford (Okla.) and Democratic Senator Chris Murphy (Conn.). The bill reasserts control of the border, protects border communities, disrupts the flow of fentanyl into the country, and solves the border crisis by ending catch and release, strengthening our asylum system by delivering determinations efficiently and fairly, enhancing security, and improving the legal immigration system.
Click HERE to read the bill text,HERE to read a brief summary, HERE to read a section-by-section of the bill, andHERE to view a Myth v. Fact sheet.
Below is Sinema’s speech as prepared for delivery:
I stand here today as the border crisis is devastating my state.
Just last week, Nogales Officers seized 2.1 million fentanyl pills at a port of entry.
Just last week, Border Patrol agents recovered in the Tucson desert enough fentanyl to kill three hundred forty thousand Americans.
Just last week, nearly fourteen thousand migrants crossed into Arizona. Many are military age men coming from all across the globe.
Our broken border system is a national security crisis.
Last September, when my Republican colleagues demanded with a clear and united voice, that border security must be included in Congress’s national security package, I wholeheartedly agreed.
Finally – it seemed – we had the opportunity to solve the nightmare my state has lived for over forty years.
So, I got to work.
My Republican colleagues chose Senator James Lankford – my partner on the Homeland Security Border Management Subcommittee.
We’ve worked together for over five years on strong border policy.
Senator Lankford has joined me at the Arizona border to see the crisis first hand. Senator Lankford is an incredibly smart, earnest, conservative lawmaker.
I know he was chosen by his conference because of his expertise and knowledge of border security policy, and his reputation as a serious, conservative lawmaker who cares deeply about getting policy right.
As we started the negotiations, Senator Lankford laid out four policy pillars the Republican conference needed to secure the border.
Number one, asylum. Raise the asylum standard and close the loopholes so cartels and economic migrants can no longer exploit the system.
Number two, safe third country. Ensure people who have lived safely in another country don’t backlog our system, because they do not qualify for asylum.
Number three, close the border. Create a Title-42 like authority to shut down the border when our system is backlogged and overwhelmed.
Number four, parole. Stop the Administration from giving migrants at the border a free pass into our country.
Over the course of nearly five months, we worked every single day, navigating intricate and difficult policy decisions to meet these four pillars.
When we hit bumps – I reminded everyone at the table about what was happening on the ground at my border, what real life looks like in Arizona – because I knew those four key pillars were necessary to secure the border and solve the crisis.
That’s why, just yesterday, when endorsing our bill, Yuma Mayor Doug Nicholls said, “thank you for incorporating many of the specific issues that border leaders have asked be addressed.”
Together, with Senators Lankford and Murphy – and our incredibly talented staffs, including my staff director on the Border Management Subcommittee, Anthony Papian – we worked through weekends and holidays to get these policies right.
Senator Murphy, Senator Lankford, and I – we all negotiated in good faith.
We delivered.
We produced a bill many thought impossible.
Our bill overhauls the broken system, stops the misuse of parole, and closes the border during surges, ensuring the quick detention and deportation of migrants who don’t have a legal right to be here.
We end catch and release.
We add more detention beds.
We increase deportation flights.
We quickly decide asylum claims.
We put border patrol back in the desert catching bad guys and drugs.
That’s why the National Border Patrol Council endorses this bill, and not H.R. 2.
We produced a bill that finally, after decades of all talk and no action, secures the border and solves the border crisis.
Our bill was ready for primetime.
We were ready to bring the bill to the floor, open it up for debate and amendments, you know – how the Senate is supposed to work – and then pass the bill.
But, less than twenty-four hours after we released the bill, my Republican colleagues changed their minds.
Turns out, they want all talk and no action.
It turns out, border security is not actually a risk to our national security, it is just a talking point for the election.
After all of their cable news appearances, after all those campaign photo ops in the desert, after all those trips to the border, this crisis isn’t actually much of a crisis after all.
Sunday morning, there was a real crisis at the border.
Monday morning, that crisis magically disappeared.
Well, guess what guys? The crisis is real.
It is real in Arizona.
On Sunday – the day we released our border bill – over six thousand migrants crossed the border.
On Monday – the day this body decided the border crisis was no longer a crisis – over six thousand five hundred migrants crossed the border.
And yesterday – the day the Republican conference said we are not going to pass a border bill – nearly seven thousand migrants crossed the border.
The Border Emergency Authority in our border bill would have shut the border down – literally – every single day of this year.
I’ve been sharing the facts of our bill to anyone who would listen.
I’ve refuted the lie that our bill allows 5,000 migrants to enter the country every day. In fact, our bill stops those migrants from coming into the country every day.
Meanwhile, by killing our bill, we have no Title 42-like authority to shut down the border.
So, 5,000, 6,000, 7,000, 10,000, or even 14,000 migrants can cross into our country. Every. Single. Day.
Make no mistake – a vote against this bill is a vote for the status quo – a vote for continued chaos at the border.
Our current system lets migrants into the country with nothing but a piece of paper – a notice to appear – for a court date years into the future, and no accountability structure to ensure they actually show up.
In Arizona, this broken system is commonly called “catch and release.”
It’s been happening for years.
Our bill ends catch and release.
But, when this bill fails today, catch and release will continue. Every. Single. Day.
Some people say the President has all the authority he needs to secure the border. Then tell me why Arizona has lived the nightmare of our border crisis for over forty years and the past five administrations – Republican and Democrat.
Before COVID, the last administration tried to shut down the border – the courts stopped it.
After COVID, the courts struck down Title 42.
It is clear we need a law.
I’ve heard from some that the only solution is House Republicans’ bill, H.R. 2.
To them, I’d point out that our bill – unlike H.R. 2 – actually includes penalties for those who try to cross the border when it is shut down, creating a one-year bar for anyone who tries to cross twice.
H.R. 2? No consequences.
H.R. 2 continues the current flawed policy that allows migrants to get work permits without any asylum interview.
Our bill ends that.
That’s why the conservative Wall Street Journal Editorial Board called our bill the most restrictive migrant legislation in decades.
We make sure only those actually fleeing violence and persecution can stay here and work after they pass a new, faster, tougher screening.
And – if someone doesn’t finish the asylum process? Their work permit gets taken away.
H.R. 2? Silent.
H.R. 2 doesn’t even fund new detention beds, guys.
H.R. 2, another example of all talk and no action.
So, if you want to spin the border crisis for your own political agendas, go right ahead.
If you want to continue to use the southern border as a backdrop for your political campaign, that’s fine – good luck to you.
But I have a very clear message for anyone using the southern border for staged political events: don’t come to Arizona.
Take your political theater to Texas.
Do not bring it to my state.
In Arizona, we’re serious.
We don’t have time for your political games.
We are not interested in you posing for the cameras.
In Arizona, we are busy.
Just ask Cochise County ranchers David and Tina Thompson. They live the reality of our broken border every time migrants attempt to break into their home.
Ask Bisbee City Council Member Leslie Johns, who had to open the doors of the town’s City Council building and clear out the chambers for migrants to sleep on the floor, after they were released into a tiny town with no shelter and just one bus stop.
Or ask Yuma Farmer John Boelts who does his best to manage his farm despite the lettuce crops constantly trampled by migrants crossing his produce fields.
Or ask Bernadette Nez, the manager of “Why Not Travel” Convenience Store in Why, Arizona, who lost thousands of dollars every day before Christmas while the Lukeville Port of Entry was closed.
Or ask Sierra Vista Mayor Clea McCaa who lays in bed at night, scared that his teenage daughter could die in one of the daily, deadly high-speed chases of teenagers smuggling drugs and people from the border up to Phoenix, and next – into your state.
Or ask Bisbee Mayor Ken Budge, who is pleading with each and every one of you to understand how your political games hurt border towns like his.
As he said yesterday – “I am saddened after all these months, now some Senators have second thoughts about this from both parties…
“…I would like to ask any of them to reverse their roles and trade places with me. How they would like to live in my home as a helicopter circled my home at 6:30 in the morning for about an hour, as was the case today.”
This is life in my border state. This is Arizona.
Earlier this week, it was noted that while facts on the border haven’t changed, the politics in the country have changed.
I guess that’s it.
The politics changed.
Three weeks ago, everyone wanted to solve the border crisis. Yesterday, no one did.
For four months, we were stymied on action to support our allies and stand up to Putin’s illegal war.
For four months, we’ve been unable to move forward – unable to defend democracy overseas – because of the urgent need to secure our border.
And then suddenly, in the last 48 hours, the border no longer matters.
Some in this chamber say:
Let’s just drop it.
Hey, let’s wait for the election. Let’s sort this out in the next Congress. Let’s move on.
Arizona can’t move on.
You here can decide that this crisis is over. But the crisis is still real in my state, and it will be tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day.
I usually end my speeches by calling on the better angels of our nature.
When we work together, we can solve tough problems.
We did that here.
You decided no.
You decided you don’t even want to debate it. You don’t want to amend it. You don’t want to tackle the problem.
Partisanship won.
The Senate has failed Arizona.
Shameful.