OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Every single Democrat in the U.S. Senate on Monday voted against a measure that would have barred the use of tax dollars to fly illegal immigrants into the country, reports said.
Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) proposed an amendment that would have prohibited the Biden administration from using federal funds for the flights, but none of the members of the majority party supported it.
Hagerty proposed an amendment following a report by Todd Bensman from the Center for Immigration Studies based on a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that found 320,000 “inadmissible aliens” used the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s One app to fly into the U.S. in 2023.
The report did not say where the migrants were flown, but it did say that they were taken to 43 airports within the country.
“I’m bringing forward a vote on a very simple question. Do you support American taxpayer dollars being used to fly illegal immigrants from countries like Venezuela and Haiti into America to be settled in cities and towns near you? If so, vote against me,” Hagerty said during a discussion of his amendment to spending legislation which would have prevented federal funds from being used for the flights. “Make no mistake here, President Biden has been secretly flying hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants into blue city airports.”
After the vote, Hagerty noted on the X platform: “Tonight every single Senate Democrat voted against my amendment that would stop Biden Admin from using taxpayer dollars to charter flights for hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens from their countries directly to American towns to be resettled. Indefensible.”
Tonight every single Senate Democrat voted against my amendment that would stop Biden Admin from using taxpayer dollars to charter flights for hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens from their countries directly to American towns to be resettled.
Indefensible. pic.twitter.com/ofTnhSPnY8
— Senator Bill Hagerty (@SenatorHagerty) March 23, 2024
The final vote was 51-47.
Hagerty previously proposed an amendment to exclude illegal immigrants from the Census to apportion seats in the House of Representatives.
This was to prevent an overrepresentation of districts with significant numbers of illegal immigrants, which could lead to an unfair distribution of political power. All Senate Democrats voted against this amendment as well.
“I think that this proves the motive behind the crime on our border,” Hagerty said, adding, “They want these illegal migrants in here to create more electoral power for them in their blue states. They’re creating sanctuary cities to be a magnet so these people will disproportionately flow to these blue states.”
“The estimates are as high as 10 million people that have come here. That would be 13 extra congressional districts if you allocated them the right way,” the Republican senator from Tennessee explained. “This is a tremendous amount of power that the Democrats are bringing in.”
Illegal immigration has rocketed to the top of voter concerns heading into the 2024 elections, with most believing former President Donald Trump will handle the issue better than President Biden.
Trump received higher ratings than Biden on all issues except abortion and climate change when respondents were asked about their opinions on the job performance of both presidents, The Post Millennial reported, citing the survey.
Trump garnered a 49 percent favorable rating on the economy, contrasting with Biden’s 37 percent in an ABC/Ipsos poll conducted between March 8 and 9 of 539 adults. Regarding inflation, 45 percent approved of Trump, compared to 31 percent for Biden.
Regarding crime, Trump was viewed more favorably at 41 percent compared to Biden’s 35 percent. Similarly, on immigration, the former president received a 45 percent favorable rating, while Biden trailed with 29 percent.
The number of illegal aliens entering the nation in February increased as the Department of Homeland Security said that it had more than 256,000 encounters with unauthorized migrants that month, The Washington Times reported.
