{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/barrasso-election-security-begins-with-border-security/", "Barrasso: Election Security Begins with Border Security", "2026-07-23", "2026", "2026-07", "Republican", "Senate", "WY", "John Barrasso", "B001261", "www.barrasso.senate.gov", "barrasso", "https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/newsroom/news-releases/", "scraper", "\u201cDemocrats need to stop opposing every effort that we make on this Senate Floor to secure our border and to enforce our immigration laws. Election security begins with border security. Today\u2019s Democrats want neither border security nor election security.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) today highlighted how years of open-border policies from Democrats allowed millions of illegal immigrants into the country. Senator Barrasso specifically discussed how noncitizens voting in New Jersey elections is a direct consequence of the Democrats\u2019 failed open-border policies.\n\nClick HERE to watch Senator Barrasso\u2019s remarks.\n\nSen. Barrasso\u2019s remarks as delivered:\n\n\u201cWhen it comes to elections in America, only American citizens should be allowed to vote.\n\n\u201cBig cities, blue states, illegal immigrants are registering to vote and are casting ballots. This week, the State of New Jersey admitted that 6,600 noncitizens made it onto their voting rolls. Every single one of them \u2013 every single one was registered to vote during the final years of the Biden administration \u2013 6,600. Four hundred of them actually voted, and those are the ones that we know about.\n\n\u201cHere\u2019s how it happened. For four years, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris flung open our southern border. Ten million illegal immigrants flooded into our country. Among them were criminals, members of cartels, drug dealers, gang members, terror suspects. Sanctuary states and cities welcomed these illegal immigrants, and the State of New Jersey \u2013 where all this has happened \u2013 is one of them.\n\n\u201cNew Jersey hands out driver\u2019s licenses to illegal immigrants. Its Department of Motor Vehicles turns driver\u2019s licenses directly into voter registration. It\u2019s automatic. And in this case, the State of New Jersey, it registered 6,600 of these illegal immigrants to vote. It happened in the State of New Jersey, and they admit they did it.\n\n\u201cThe liberal governor of New Jersey blames it all on a computer glitch. The real blame belongs to the Democrats and their sanctuary city and state policies. Democrats can\u2019t throw open the borders, hand illegal immigrants driver\u2019s licenses, and then pretend to be shocked \u2013 shocked the Democrats claim to be \u2013 when these illegal immigrants end up voting.\n\n\u201cIllegal immigrants must not be allowed to vote in American elections. States need to clean up their voter rolls aggressively and do it immediately. The National Voter Registration Act requires states to make, \u2018Reasonable efforts\u2019 to maintain accurate voter rolls. Many Democrat states refuse to follow the law.\n\n\u201cSenator Schumer said last week on this Floor that elections belong to the American people. And just moments ago right before he left the Floor, he talked about, so-called Democrats\u2019 \u2018Election Integrity Task Force.\u2019 I wrote it down as he said it. Democrats\u2019 \u2018Election Integrity Task Force.\u2019 You talk about an oxymoron like jumbo shrimp. Like pretty ugly. Like deafening silence. To me deafening silence is what\u2019s happening from the Democrats, and it is time for them to start actually acting.\n\n\u201cDemocrats need to stop opposing every effort that we make on this Senate Floor to secure our border and to enforce our immigration laws. Election security begins with border security. Today\u2019s Democrats want neither border security nor election security. And they sure don\u2019t want voter I.D. They don\u2019t want to guarantee that only citizens vote.\n\n\u201cThe modern Democrat Party is being driven today by extremists. And these extremists all around the country are winning Democrat primary elections. In New York, a Democrat nominee for Congress has vowed to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In Colorado, another Democrat nominee \u2013 who won a Democrat primary election in just the last couple of weeks \u2013 said abolishing ICE \u2018will not wait.\u2019 They want to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement in our nation. In Michigan, a leading Democrat candidate for this United States Senate has been fighting since 2018 \u2013 we\u2019re talking eight years \u2013 to abolish ICE. Eight years spent fighting our nation\u2019s Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He recently said ICE \u2018cannot be reformed. It can\u2019t be retrained. It must be abolished.\u2019 They want to open the borders, let anybody in, and let them stay forever. That\u2019s what the Democrat Party of today believes.\n\n\u201cThey actually have a manifesto. That\u2019s the Democrat manifesto. It is a manifesto. They want mass amnesty for illegal immigrants, and that includes illegal immigrant criminals, even murderers. They want to release illegal immigrant criminals into our communities. Into our neighborhoods. And then the Democrats are demanding free healthcare for illegal immigrants paid for by American taxpayers. They\u2019re demanding illegal immigrants vote in our elections. That\u2019s what they really want. They want to abolish the Senate \u2013 that\u2019s part of their manifesto. They want to pack the Supreme Court \u2013 that\u2019s part of their manifesto. They want to abolish the Electoral College \u2013 that is part of the manifesto that is being elected in Democrat primaries around the country.\n\n\u201cThey want to tear up the Constitution and tear down the United States of America. That\u2019s their agenda. It\u2019s radical. It\u2019s extreme. It is dangerous. It\u2019s scary. The American people ought to be scared about what\u2019s happening with the Democrat manifesto and what they\u2019re promoting for this country. The American people can\u2019t afford it, and they\u2019re certainly not going to accept it. It\u2019s not the America we know and love.\n\n\u201cThe Department of Homeland Security recently released new data about the number of illegal border crossings in the month of June. It is at a 50-year low. That\u2019s because of the work being done by this administration. For the past 14 months, zero illegal immigrants have been released into the country. Absolutely zero. After millions and millions and millions under the Joe Biden catch and release disaster.\n\n\u201cRepublicans have secured the border, but this fight isn\u2019t over. After years of Democrat open border policies, millions of illegal immigrants remain in our country today. Either we remove them or extreme Democrats are going to do everything they can to make it possible for them to vote in our elections. We already saw it happen in New Jersey. Republicans promised to deport illegal immigrant criminals, and it is time to continue on with that promise.\n\n\u201cThe contrast is clear. Republicans want our laws enforced. Democrats want our laws ignored. The American people rejected open borders before, will reject them again. The American people want secure borders, safe communities, and only American citizens voting.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-07-24T07:30:11Z", "2026-07-24T07:31:13Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/barrasso-election-security-begins-with-border-security/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.2356587685644627, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}