{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=65DF5877-3BE0-4C70-8286-B58CE6CDFE58", "Thune: Democrats\u2019 Refusal to Secure the Southern Border Holds up Aid for U.S. Allies", "2023-12-13", "2023", "2023-12", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases", "scraper", "Click here to watch the video.\n\nWASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today spoke on the Senate floor and called on President Biden and Senate Democrats to get serious about working with Republicans to address the growing humanitarian and security crisis at the southern border. Thune noted that Democrats are holding up the much-needed national security package for the United States\u2019 allies because they are unwilling to take meaningful steps to slow the flow of illegal migrants entering the country at the southern border.\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as delivered):\n\n\u201c10,109.\n\n\u201c10,109.\n\n\u201cThe number of people that were apprehended trying to come across the border illegally yesterday.\n\n\u201cThose are the people that were caught, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cThat doesn't count the people who got away, and that Customs and Border Patrol know got away.\n\n\u201cThen there are all the unknown gotaways.\n\n\u201cBut over 10,000 people in a single day apprehended trying to come across our southern border illegally.\n\n\u201cAnnualize that.\n\n\u201cAgain, you\u2019re talking 3.5 to 4 million people a year.\n\n\u201cFour million people is larger than 24 states in the United States of America.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s the dimension of the problem that we are talking about.\n\n\u201cAnd that we\u2019re trying to get the White House and the Democrats here in the Senate to focus on and address.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s any surprise that Democrats aren\u2019t interested in making the illegal immigration crisis at our southern border a priority.\n\n\u201cAfter all, the president and Democrats have spent almost three years now ignoring, minimizing, or actively abetting this crisis.\n\n\u201cBut over the past few days, we\u2019ve had a chance to see the true depth of their animosity to border security.\n\n\u201cBecause it\u2019s become increasingly clear that Democrats are so opposed to serious border security measures that they\u2019re willing to sacrifice aid to Ukraine and other allies, including Israel, in order to keep the border open.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right.\n\n\u201cDemocrats are holding up an aid package for our allies because they are not willing to take meaningful steps to secure our border.\n\n\u201cNow, Mr. President, I strongly support aid to allies like Ukraine and Taiwan and believe that supporting these nations is in our national security interest.\n\n\u201cAnd Republicans have been ready to take up the national security supplemental for weeks.\n\n\u201cBut we\u2019ve asked for one thing.\n\n\u201cJust one thing.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ve asked that while we\u2019re looking after our national security interests abroad, we also address the national security crisis here at home.\n\n\u201cThat we give the safety of the American people the same priority as the safety of our allies.\n\n\u201cMr. President, national security begins at home.\n\n\u201cAnd we have an obligation to the American people to address the crisis at our southern border that is threatening the security of our nation.\n\n\u201cAnd while it is hard to understand how any Democrat can fail to understand the gravity of the situation at our southern border, let me just run through some of those numbers again.\n\n\u201cMr. President, we have had three successive record-breaking years of illegal immigration at our southern border under President Biden.\n\n\u201cIn October 2023, which is the latest month for which we have data, U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered 240,988 migrants at our southern border \u2013 which is the highest October number ever recorded.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s nearly a quarter of a million individuals in just one month.\n\n\u201cLast Tuesday, as I mentioned, there were a staggering 12,000-plus encounters at our southern border \u2013 the highest daily total ever recorded.\n\n\u201cThat was followed by two days of 10,000-plus encounters.\n\n\u201cAnd, as I said, yesterday, the number was once again up over 10,000.\n\n\u201cIn fiscal year 2023, the Border Patrol apprehended 169 individuals on the terrorist watchlist at the southern border attempting to illegally enter our country.\n\n\u201c169.\n\n\u201cPeople on the terrorist watchlist.\n\n\u201cThat number is more than the total of the previous six fiscal years combined.\n\n\u201cDuring October 2023 alone, more than 1,500 individuals who had previously been convicted of a crime were apprehended by the Border Patrol.\n\n\u201cMore than 90 of them had outstanding warrants for their arrest.\n\n\u201cAnd the Border Patrol apprehended \u2013 get this \u2013 50 gang members.\n\n\u201cThink about that.\n\n\u201cPeople on the terrorist watchlist.\n\n\u201cPeople who have warrants out for their arrest.\n\n\u201c1,500 individuals who had previously been convicted of a crime.\n\n\u201cAnd 50 gang members.\n\n\u201cYou can\u2019t make this stuff up.\n\n\u201cWhere is the outrage?\n\n\u201cThis is insanity.\n\n\u201cThe risk that we are putting our country at, the threat that this represents to the safety of the American people.\n\n\u201cAnd again, those numbers are just for October.\n\n\u201cMr. President, there is no question that many illegal immigrants are coming to the United States in search of a better life.\n\n\u201cWe know that.\n\n\u201cBut there is equally no question that there are bad people \u2013 dangerous people \u2013 trying to make their way into our country.\n\n\u201cAnd some of them may already be here.\n\n\u201cThe numbers I\u2019ve referred to only cover individuals who have actually \u2013 as I said \u2013 been apprehended.\n\n\u201cBut a staggering number of people have made their way into our country during the Biden administration without being apprehended.\n\n\u201cIn fact, during the last fiscal year, there were 670,000 known gotaways \u2013 and those are individuals the Border Patrol saw but was unable to apprehend.\n\n\u201cNow, to put that number in perspective, Mr. President, that\u2019s more than three times the number of people in the most populated city in my home state of South Dakota.\n\n\u201cAnd it is highly likely that among those gotaways were dangerous individuals who should not be taking up residence in our country.\n\n\u201cMr. President, as the director of the FBI reminded us in his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month, it doesn\u2019t take many dangerous people to cause a lot of devastation.\n\n\u201cAnd the crisis at our southern border is creating a situation that could allow not just a few but a lot of dangerous individuals to enter our country.\n\n\u201cAnd so while a lot of us Republicans are ready and eager to take up aid to our allies like Ukraine, we will continue to insist that any national security supplemental address not just the security needs of our allies abroad, or helping them defend their borders, but the security needs of the American people here at home, by defending our border.\n\n\u201cSo, Mr. President, the ball is in Democrats\u2019 court.\n\n\u201cThey can work with Republicans to address the national security crisis at our southern border in the supplemental appropriations bill.\n\n\u201cOr they can continue to sacrifice aid to our allies in order to keep the southern border open.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s their choice, and it\u2019s really that simple.\n\n\u201cDemocrats have already jeopardized our ability to get anything done before Christmas.\n\n\u201cFor the sake of Ukraine and our other allies, I hope they decide to work with Republicans sooner rather than later.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I yield the floor.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:56:20Z"]], "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.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=65DF5877-3BE0-4C70-8286-B58CE6CDFE58"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9380260016769171, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": 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