Senate Democrat: 'Majority' of GOP 'delights in chaos' at the border

14 May 2023

United States Senator Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) tore into congressional Republicans this weekend for duplicitously traveling to the US-Mexico border for photo ops while offering solutions that Democrats believe would exacerbate the ongoing human rights crisis.

The discussion on Sunday's edition of Meet the Press comes as former President Donald Trump's controversial COVID-19 Title 42 policy — which set strict limits on who could claim asylum and was continued by President Joe Biden — expires.

On Thursday, the GOP-led House of Representatives passed an "extreme" bill to enhance and extend Title 42, which Democrats called "cruel," "anti-immigrant," and a "ban on asylum." As Al-Jazeeranoted, the legislation will likely struggle to advance through the Democratic-controlled Senate, and even if it does, Biden has vowed to veto it.

NBC News moderator Chuck Todd grilled Murphy on the issue.

"Other than introducing a bill on day one, he never talked about it. He didn't lean his shoulder in. Build Back Better was the focus. Everything else was the focus. And look, the Republicans have dirtier hands on immigration, like I said. But the Democrats don't have clean hands on this either," Todd said of Biden's approach to immigration.

"Well, Republicans have had multiple opportunities to come to the table and pass immigration and reform that would fix the problem at the border. And my belief is that while you have a small group of Republicans who legitimately wanna engage, the majority of that party delights at chaos at the border," Murphy replied.

"You saw some of my colleagues on Tuesday, as soon as votes were done, rush down to the border to take smiling photographs with the Border Patrol, essentially celebrating the fact that there was chaos because they believe that there's political gain to be had," Murphy continued. "So I think Americans know that it's Republicans, not Democrats, that have been sitting on the outside when it comes to fixing our broken immigration system."

Todd wondered where Murphy stands on the issue.

"Are you supportive of reinstituting Title 42? There's a bill in the Senate that could do that. It's gotten a little more support from Democrats, particularly ones that are on the ballot in 2024, which actually you are too, though not in as purple of a state as others. Would you be reluctantly supportive of that if you thought it was a tool they needed?" Todd pressed.

"I'm not, because that just pushes the problem down the line, right? That just gives you one or two more years of individuals being denied entry. Whenever Title 42 is lifted, you are going to have this temporary problem of massive numbers of new people arriving at the border," Murphy responded. "And by the way, Republicans have been castigating the president for not lifting COVID restrictions fast enough. The only COVID restriction Republicans seem to want to keep in place is the one that keeps people that don't look like them from coming into the United States."

Watch the clips below or at this link.

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