Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) made a fiery case on the need for a border wall on Fox Wednesday. He argued that border walls are effective and President Trump’s great “sin” in the eyes of “big-government Republicans and Ritz-Carlton Democrats” is his decision to enforce U.S. immigration law.
He told Fox’s Stuart Varney that some of his Republican Senate colleagues were “wavering” on the issue.
“I don't want to impugn the motives of my colleagues, but my attitude is, speaking just for me, you either believe in border security or you don't," he said.
"One way to stop illegal immigration is a border wall," he argued. "We know that because we have one in San Diego, and Yuma, and El Paso, and on the West Bank in Israel, and in Hungary and in Saudi Arabia and in Bulgaria, and I could keep going. Border barriers work. Duh."
Here’s the problem. Speaker Pelosi hates President Trump more than she supports border security. Our southern border is 1,900 miles. No fair-minded person believes we will ever be able to secure that border without physical barriers in some form or fashion. pic.twitter.com/kLiDknu3vO
— John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) January 9, 2019
“I don’t want government to be shut down but this fight has been brewing for a long time,” Kennedy emphasized. “I’m tired of the border leaking like a sieve too.”
He then argued that there was a “bipartisan refusal” on Capitol Hill to enforce immigration laws that has been going on for quite some time.
"Let me tell you what Trump’s sin is: for the first time in 20 years he's enforcing America's immigration laws," he said. "For 15, 20 years we’ve had a bipartisan refusal up here by both big-government Republicans and Ritz-Carlton Democrats to refuse to enforce America's immigration laws, and Trump said, ‘Well by God, I'm going to enforce the law’ and all of a sudden, you know, he's Satan and I just think the American people see through it.”
President Trump attended a lunch with Senate Republicans Wednesday as discussions between the White House and House Democrats continue and the government shutdown goes on to its 19th day.
Following the lunch Trump claimed the GOP is “totally unified” on the border wall fight, despite hearing some concerns about the impact of the government shutdown.