Sen. Mark Kelly calls out Republicans for actively bolstering the border crisis

Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly took to the Senate floor on Wednesday evening to urge Congress to reconsider the bipartisan border security and immigration bill hammered out over many months by Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, along with Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma and Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut.

It is legislation filled with solutions that America needs, but that Republican politicians and former President Donald Trump do not want.

Not until sometime after the election.

Kelly pointed out some of what would be happening if the Sinema bill had been passed.

Bill would've added agents, updated asylum

“We could have been on our way to hiring more than 1,000 additional border patrol agents and paying them better,” he said. “We could have new technology to detect fentanyl and more personnel to seize those drugs, keeping them from getting into our communities and killing people.

"We could have new authorities to prevent the border from being overwhelmed, authorities that the president committed to using. That includes an updated asylum system with more officers to quickly screen claims. All of these things are things that my Republican colleagues have wanted for years.

“Arizona, today, has none of it.”

In a recently released poll by the Center for the Future of Arizona, people living in our state said that is exactly what they want, a bipartisan solution.

Republicans decided, however, that they need a crisis on the border to use as an election issue, something to stir up their base, so they’ve squelched the bill.

Republicans want a crisis to stir up their base

Among those leading the charge are Trump bootlickers like Republican Arizona U.S. Reps. Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar and Eli Crane, along with U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake.

They spiked the bill by way of lies and misinformation.

State border bill: Is actually about GOP job security

Sinema, on the other hand, pointed out back in March that under the provisions of her bill the border would have been closed EVERY SINGLE DAY of the year up until that point.

The Sinema bill was endorsed by National Border Patrol Council, along with business leaders and elected officials throughout Arizona.

Kelly pleads with Congress to do the right thing

The only reason it hasn’t gone anywhere is because Trump and his MAGA cohorts want a crisis to run on. Even if it’s a crisis they’ve perpetuated.

Kelly said on the Senate floor, “We had an opportunity to defy the low expectations that the American people have for Congress and actually do something in a bipartisan way to start fixing the border. But that’s not what happened. Senate Republicans walked away.

“Well, actually, they ran away from this agreement. Because too many politicians would just prefer to keep talking about a problem than actually solve it. This failure isn’t theoretical in my state.

“Let’s pass this bipartisan border agreement … let’s defy those low expectations that the American people have for us. That’s what they deserve from us.”

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sen. Mark Kelly calls out GOP for bolstering the border crisis