Mark Kelly: “the Federal Government has failed Arizona and other border States for decades. And for decades, Congress has done…”

“the Federal Government has failed Arizona and other border States for decades. And for decades, Congress has done nothing about it. As we have lurched from crisis to crisis, Arizona and other border States have always been hit the hardest. This humanitarian crisis is bad for asylum seekers, bad for law enforcement, and bad for communities. The problem gets worse the longer it is ignored. And yet for decades, nothing has been done. I see it every time I go to the border. So have my colleagues who have traveled to Arizona to see it for themselves. I hear about it every time I talk to border mayors and sheriffs. And we talk about it every day here in the Senate and over in the House. In fact, there are few topics we talk about more while nothing changes. This week, we had a real and rare opportunity to actually do something about it. There was a real plan, a real bill ready to be passed and signed into law by the President. We got here because for months, Senators Sinema, Murphy, and Lankford worked together on a bipartisan agreement almost every single day for months. If we passed it, we would get more Border Patrol agents, more technology to stop fentanyl, more asylum officers to quickly screen asylum claims, and more judges to bring down this massive backlog of cases. That would make a real difference. If we passed it, we would have an updated asylum system, authorities to prevent the border from being overwhelmed, and more visas to keep families together.…”