Arizona,
This week, the Senate passed a critical national security package to support our partners Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, and provide humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza. As Putin continues to wage his illegal war in Ukraine, this gets Ukraine desperately needed weapons and ammunition to support their self-defense, which is important to our national security.
Sen. Kelly speaks on the Senate floor about the Senate failing to pass a bipartisan border security agreement. (Twitter/Facebook/Instagram)
While I’m glad we found a path forward to back Ukraine, I’m frustrated by how we got here when we could have both secured the border and supported our allies.
Sen. Kelly appears on CNN to talk about the importance of border security and national security (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)
After years of talking about the border, we had a real opportunity to do something about it. There was a real plan, a real bill — negotiated by Republicans and Democrats and ready to be passed and signed into law by the President along with these national security priorities.
It would have increased the number of Border Patrol agents, brought more technology to stop the inflow of fentanyl, provided new authorities to prevent the border from being overwhelmed, and more.
We took a pair of votes, one that included both border security and support for our allies, and one that just included support for our allies. It was a lack of support from my Republican colleagues that meant the first vote with border security failed.
After months of working on a compromise to finally do something about the border, Senate Republicans reversed course and decided they’d rather keep the problem than work together on a solution.
This isn’t just a talking point for Arizona, it is a reality we live every single day. I won’t stop working to fix the issues with our border and our broken immigration system.
Sincerely,
Senator Mark Kelly
Source: https://www.kelly.senate.gov/