As Border Crisis Churns, Senator Asks: ‘Is There Any End in Sight?’

The concerns that surround Ukraine funding and the millions of illegal immigrants flooding across America’s unsecure border have been a significant source of tension for some time now. And as the end of 2023 draws near, all eyes are on the Senate, where negotiations continue even as the legislative clock runs out.

But the question is, with Christmas recess around the corner, will the Senate have enough time to get anything done? “Are we going to make it?” “Washington Watch” host and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins asked.

Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), who serves on four Senate committees, answered, “I don’t think so.” He continued, “I think that [Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Joe Biden have no intention of securing our border.” He explained how “some very simple policy changes” could reduce the rate of people “pouring across the border,” and that these “policy changes alone would probably turn around three fourths of the people we’re seeing cross our border illegally.”

As far as Marshall is concerned, any hopes of President Joe Biden making changes “at this point in time” are unlikely. But he classified this as an urgent “national security issue” that needs to take priority, even if Biden is indifferent. He stated, “We’re not going to even talk about Ukraine funding … until we secure our own border. It’s that simple.”

He continued, “[E]verything that can be said about Ukraine has been said.” When it comes to the people of Ukraine, Marshall is sympathetic, but he sees that as a separate topic he’s “happy to debate” and vote on when the border crisis is in a better spot. At the end of the day, he added, “the president is wrong to put funding for Israel, funding for Ukraine, and securing the border in one package.”

Perkins agreed, stating that over a month ago, even though the Democrats seem to have “lumped” all these issues together, “The House sent over a funding mechanism for Israel … [of] roughly $14 billion in military aid” that went nowhere in the Senate. “Nothing’s been done with it,” he said. And Marshall noted that this bill has been brought to the Senate floor four times, and each time the Democrat senators “voted it down.” This is further evidence, Marshall argued, that who they really support is Palestine, Iran, and “everything that’s not American.”

Ultimately, where the Democrats put their energy speaks to their misplaced priorities, because it’s not on Israel, and it’s not on the border, Perkins argued. If nothing else, securing the border is “intertwined with Ukraine funding, and rightfully so, because how can we be interested in helping another country secure its national security, and we’re not taking care of our own?”

He added, “We’ve set new records of people coming across this border. I mean, is there any end in sight?” Marshall replied, “You know, there’s not.”

He referenced Matthew 7:3-5, where Jesus states to “first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” For any progress to be made on this issue, Republicans and Democrats would have to work together. Currently, as Marshall emphasized, it only stands as a priority for Republicans.

As far as what to expect between now and Friday when Congress’s Christmas recess begins, Marshall predicts “a lot of talk, a lot of rhetoric,” and likely no decision ultimately made. Assuming so, he concluded, “I don’t think the real negotiation on the border and Ukraine” will start until after the Christmas recess. “But we’ll see.”