The Senate's version of the Laken Riley Act, which in part calls for illegal immigrants who commit crimes to be detained, needs to be taken up by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, as it has the bipartisan support needed to pass, Sen. Ted Budd, one of the bill's sponsors, told Newsmax on Saturday.
"We had 37 members from the U.S. House of Representatives support this," the North Carolina Republican said on Newsmax's "Saturday Agenda" in response to comments this week by Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.
The Hill reported that Warnock on Tuesday contended that the only way to get any legislation passed on the immigration issue is by bipartisan support and referred to the Laken Riley Act as "smoke and mirrors."
Budd said he doesn't understand why Schumer, D-N.Y., "wants to bat down everything that supports our communities and supports enforcement and makes families like Laken Riley's safe."
Instead, the Democrats have "all sorts of language" on immigration but "it's completely deceptive," the congressman said.
"What we need is to give law enforcement the tools that they need," said Budd.
But with the Laken Riley Act, criminals such as the man accused of killing the Georgia nursing student would have been detained rather than freed, said Budd.
"She would still be here with us today," he said, adding that for Warnock to call the bill "smoke and mirrors" is an "absolute tragedy because of what happened in his home state."
Meanwhile, real reform is needed, said Budd.
"Under President [Donald] Trump, we had the best, most safe border that we've had in 40 years in 2020. We could get back to that with only one executive order," he added.
Budd also spoke out about Schumer's speech this week calling for Israel to vote out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"Rather than criticizing our greatest ally in the Middle East in a pro-democracy force and a force for stability in the region, rather than try to undermine them, he needs to worry about his own party, which is becoming increasingly pro-Hamas," said Budd. "Why would you ever want to undermine an ally in the midst of a war that they hope to finish if we just give them the space and the tools that they need to finish the job and eliminate Hamas?"
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