Lindsey Graham Berates Agriculture Secretary in Heated Clash: Talk to Border Patrol and ‘You’ll Find Out How Wrong You Are’
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) clashed with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Wednesday over the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Graham asked Vilsack if “the Southern Border” is secure. Vilsack responded that “there are ways in which we can improve” before Graham interjected with “that’s not the question. Is it secure?”
Following a moment where Vilsack struggled to answer the question, Graham asked, “Is that a hard question?”
Vilsack said, “It can be a hard question” in which Graham replied, “It’s not today,” citing the latest Customs and Border Protection figures, which state that more than a million arrests have been made at the U.S.-Mexico border so far this year.
Graham said that the United States shouldn’t give legal status to those who illegally crossed the border without first securing the border, otherwise, there would “be a rush on the border.”
Vilsack dismissed the possibility of such an incentive.
Graham asked, “Do you understand that if you give legal status to one person without first securing the border, you’re going to have a run on the border ten times worse…” to which Vilsack answered, “I don’t believe that.”
Before Vilsack could elaborate, Graham chided the secretary: “I just think that’s ludicrous. I’ve been involved in every immigration bill there has been and we always secured the border first because of this very reason. You don’t give amnesty and hope people won’t keep coming. You secure the border, then you provide legal status. We’re doing it ass backwards.”
Graham lamented that there have been hearings about legalizing those who illegally cross the border, but not one about the situation at the border and called for one about the latter.
Moments later, Graham asked Vilsack, “Tell me why, if we legalize hundreds of thousands of workers, which I am willing to do, without first securing the border, you don’t believe it would create further border security problems. Explain that to me.”
Vilsack said that the “primary reason why people are crossing the border, senator, is because they’ve got a very difficult experience economically back home.”
Toward the end of their exchange, Graham asked if the Biden administration undoing the previous one’s immigration policies, such as the policy requiring asylum seekers to remain in Mexico until their claims were heard, “has effected a surge of people seeking asylum claims.”
“That’s a complicated issue,” replied Vilsack in which Graham said, “no it’s not.”
Graham asked Vilsack if he has ever talked to Border Patrol about the “pull factors” behind illegal immigration. Vilsack said he did so during his last stint as Agriculture secretary in the Obama administration, which was from 2009-2017 but has not talked to Border Patrol this year.
Ending the exchange, Graham berated Vilsack: “Go talk to them and you’ll find out how wrong you are if you talk to them.”
Watch the exchange above.
