(PatrioticPost.com)- Republican Senator Lindsey Graham made perhaps his most populist political move yet, telling the Brian Kilmeade Show on Fox News Radio on Tuesday that the United States should consider completely shutting down the immigration system while government officials get a handle on the situation.
“There was a time that we basically shut down travel into the United States from China and other places,” he said. “I think it’s now time to shut down the immigration system and have a timeout.”
It comes at a time when illegal immigration into the United States is reaching record levels, with more than 170,000 illegal aliens apprehended by border agents in March this year. It was an almost 100% increase over February’s figures, which were themselves an increase over the numbers under the Trump administration.
“What they’ve done by abolishing the remain in Mexico policy…people are released into the interior of the United States. … Unaccompanied minors are not repatriated back to their home country,” Lindsey said.
Under the Biden administration, the number of children being detained at the border has also skyrocketed. The situation has gotten so bad that the Biden administration has spent $86 million on a new six-month contract with Texas and Arizona hotels near border towns.
“You no longer have to apply for asylum in your home country,” Lindsey added. “You no longer have to wait in Mexico. We don’t deport people anymore.”
Graham has also joined a bipartisan group of legislators calling on the Biden administration to take responsibility for the border crisis, adding that Congress has very little power to act on issues relating to immigration.
Senator Jon Tester, a Democrat from Montana, said earlier this month that he isn’t sure what Congress can do in the immediate future to begin addressing the issue, when much of the problem has come about because of President Joe Bidens executive action on the border and his promise of granting an eight-year path to citizenship to all illegal aliens in the United States.
“I don’t know you need legislation. I think what we need is to make sure we get the people and the technology down there to stop it,” he said.
Democrat Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, also said that “most of what’s going on there is within the purview of the executive branch.”
“If they feel they need additional resources, obviously we’re here to help,” Whitehouse added.
But something tells us those two Democrats aren’t quite on the same page with Graham on shutting down immigration entirely for a period of time…
