Posted on 07/15/2014 1:42:19 PM PDT by jazusamo
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday asserted the Southern border is secure despite the massive surge of illegal minors from Central America that has overwhelmed federal agencies.
“The border is secure,” he told reporters after the Senate Democrats’ weekly policy lunch. “[Sen.] Martin Heinrich [D-N.M.] talked to the caucus today. He’s a border state senator. He said he can say without any equivocation the border is secure.”
Reid said lawmakers need to worry less about border security and focus instead on President Obama’s $3.7 billion request to help process the tens of thousands of children from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador who have been apprehended on the border.
Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson warned Congress last week that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is due to run out of money by mid-August because of the large number of minors attempting to cross into Texas. He said Customs and Border Protection would run out of funding by mid-September.
He estimated that as many as 90,000 illegal minors would be apprehended by the end of September.
Reid on Tuesday downplayed the need for Congress to change the law to speed the deportations of minors on the Texas border.
“My personal belief there is the law that has created some of the controversy now, there’s enough … leeway there [that] the executive branch of government doesn’t need new legislation,” he said referring to the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008.
Some critics have blamed that law for the surge of minors because it grants an advocate and court date to children from non-neighboring countries who arrive in the United States illegally.
All members of the Senate will receive a special briefing from the administration at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday on the growing illegal immigration crisis on the Texas border, Reid announced.
He also dismissed a bipartisan proposal by Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (Texas) and Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar (Texas) to expedite deportations as “too broad.”
“From all the reports I’ve gotten the answer for me is no I won’t support it,” he said.
“I believe our number one concern should be this narrow issue of we take care of this situation we have on the border. As I’ve been told, the Cornyn-Cuellar legislation covers a lot of other issues other than the problem we’re having on the border,” he said.
Reid said if the House had passed the Senate’s comprehensive immigration reform bill, there would not be a surge of illegal immigrant minors from Central America.
The Cornyn-Cuellar bill would amend the Wilberforce trafficking law by treating unaccompanied migrant children from Central America the same as those from Mexico. Under current law, Mexican children do not receive the same due process rights as minors from Central America and are deported on a much shorter timeframe.
Cornyn-Cuellar would allow unaccompanied minors to make a claim for asylum in the United States before an immigration judge within seven days of receiving a screening from the Department of Health and Human Services.
It would require immigration judges to determine whether these children are eligible to remain in the country within 72 hours of their claim for asylum.
It would also require a plan for additional resources to be deployed to achieve operational control of the Southern border.
A ficus plant with an “R” after its name could’ve beaten Dingy Harry. Yet the NV GOP was stupid enough to cough up a two-time sore loser nut who was the only person who could blow that race. Brilliant.
The American people need to turn up the heat on every Red State Democrat. Embarrass this water-carrying a—hole. A nation with no borders ceases to be a nation.
With their compliant press, they’re used to having their utterances proclaimed fact no matter how stupid.
$3.7 billion divided by 90,000 illegal aliens = $41,000 each
Is no one in washington capable of simple math???
You could buy EACH of them a new hovel in the hell-hole they came from, for that amount
Totally secure for illegals to get through - they have absolutely nothing to worry about.
Total.
Yes! Let his wisdom flow through you!
Is that why he’s moving to a gated community?
I guess it is, just saw that thread. Even Dingy Harry knows he lied. LOL!
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I just called Sen. Heinrich’s office & asked the woman on the phone just whereabouts on the border was it secure. I explained what Harry Reid said today & she said she knew nothing about it.
I asked if she was from NM & when she said yes, I asked if she felt the border was secure. She immediately said no. I informed her that maybe the senator had better check into what untruths Harry Reid was telling in Heinrich’s name.
Maybe we can help Heinrich’s office look into Reid’s lies quicker by calling him.
Sen. Martin Heinrich
Phone: 202-224-5521
Twitter: @MartinHeinrich
Email only through website: http://www.heinrich.senate.gov/contact/write-martin
Thanks for that call and for posting the info.
Reid is too busy blocking crucial bipartisan patent reform also backed by Obama because the trial lawyers and drug companies told him to. You can’t really expect him to have a clue about something like a massive border invasion when there’s nothing in it for him, can you?
Reid must be living in another country in his mind if he thinks the border is secured.How did Obama happen to come up with 3.7 billion ? Then they will want billions more so we can repair each country while our own county is sinking in debt.Obama spends money without much worry or thought about how to pay it back ?He’s like let the next Prez worry about it
As an FYI to NM ping: Reid said Sen. Martin Heinrich told him our border is secure:
“The border is secure,” he told reporters after the Senate Democrats’ weekly policy lunch. “[Sen.] Martin Heinrich [(D-N.M.)] talked to the caucus today. He’s a border state senator. He said he can say without any equivocation the border is secure.”
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