Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., released a statement Sunday in support of a bipartisan bill dealing with immigration and border security.
"For three years, the American people have endured both a border crisis and the open-borders agenda that caused it," McConnell's statement opens.
"President [Joe] Biden's campaign promise to welcome illegal aliens at the border overwhelmed a broken asylum system that unified Republican government had tried desperately to fix in the face of Democrat obstruction. His Administration took away critical tools like 'Remain in Mexico' and strong enforcement priorities that CBP [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] and ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] had relied on to stem the tide of illegal arrivals," he said, adding that the administration's "refusal to secure the border created an unprecedented crisis, and the urgent humanitarian and security consequences affect every state."
McConnell continued, "It is time to force the President to start cleaning up his mess and equip future leaders with a system that works and new emergency tools to restore order. I am grateful to Senator [James] Lankford [R-Okla.] for working tirelessly to ensure that supplemental national security legislation begins with direct and immediate solutions to the crisis at our southern border.
"America's sovereignty is being tested here at home, and our credibility is being tested by emboldened adversaries around the world. The challenges we face will not resolve themselves, nor will our adversaries wait for America to muster the resolve to meet them. The Senate must carefully consider the opportunity in front of us and prepare to act," the statement concludes.