Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) believes the solution to the border crisis is to open the floodgates by passing the Senate’s pro-migration border bill, he said in a Tuesday night debate with Republican Dave McCormick.
Casey and McCormick spent several minutes of the heated debate sparring over immigration and border security, with Casey — and one of the moderators — spending time deriding Republicans for alleged anti-immigrant rhetoric instead of discussing policies.
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McCormick’s numbers surged throughout the summer, and the race is now deadlocked with McCormick trending as early voting has begun in the commonwealth.
Casey touted the failed Senate bill, implying the bill’s passage would serve as a symbol of goodwill that would enable reforms down the road.
“The worst thing we can do is spend, have politicians spend time demonizing immigrants,” adding “the beginning of solving this problem is passing this bipartisan bill.”
That bipartisan bill, which was crafted by Republican Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) and a host of Democrat senators, was a part of a scheme engineered by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to provide senators cover to vote for tens of billions in Ukraine aid.
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In January, leaks of the bill’s contents doomed it within hours, with senators in both parties ultimately opposing it. Those leaks, which were later proved accurate, revealed the bill increased legal immigration levels while expediting work permits for migrants released into the United States — despite the bill’s proponents characterizing it as a border security bill.
Most infamously, the bill permitted tens of thousands of migrants to cross the border every week before the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) could implement any type of border controls.
McCormick attacked Casey and the bill’s advocates for gaslighting Americans. “The border bill that was proposed was an amnesty bill,” he said.
Casey rebutted that passing the pro-migration bill would “give credibility back to get to other reforms” at a later date — a daunting task in a Congress deadlocked on this issue for decades.
The three-term Democrat touted the pro-migration bill’s funds for hiring border patrol agents as evidence it is a “tough” border security bill, although many Republicans say the hiring of more personnel without a change in the Biden-Harris administration’s open-border policies would simply increase the speed at which migrants are processed and released into the U.S.
McCormick disputed the notion that he is anti-immigrant for wanting a secure border.
“I’m married to an immigrant so I’m definitely pro-legal immigration,” McCormick said. “We are a country of immigrants. We’re also a country of laws.”
He proposed “go[ing] after the cartels with military. We need to disrupt — we need to treat them as the terrorist threat they are.”
McCormick also blasted Casey for portraying election season toughness on the border that contradicts his record.
“Senator Casey just did a commercial where he was standing in front of the wall, the very wall that he derided and said we didn’t need a wall when President Trump came into office,” he said. “That’s absolute chutzpah that is a career politician in action.”
McCormick added that Casey “voted against a border wall. He’s voted for sanctuary cities. They are trying to change the conversation because they have failed to secure a border.”
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
