Political Quotes

On the recordJune 27, 2019
the 116th Congress, so far, has just talked about the humanitarian crisis at the border. Most of our Democratic colleagues have claimed up to this point that there is no crisis or emergency at the border. We will recall that we started out the year with a government shutdown because of the battle over border security, and our Democratic friends made one thing perfectly clear: They would oppose any effort to fund our security mission at the border. That resulted in the 35-day shutdown. The Speaker of the House at the time called the situation ``a fake crisis at the border,'' and the minority leader here in the Senate referred it to as ``a crisis that does not exist.'' Well, they weren't the only ones. Throughout the Halls of the Capitol, Democrats in Congress used terms like ``phony,'' ``imaginary,'' and ``make-believe'' to describe the challenges our frontline officers and agents were facing every day. While our Democratic colleagues have reflexively denied the existence of a crisis at the border, the problems have grown only bigger each day. Of course, it was 2014, I will remind my friends across the aisle, when Barack Obama, then President of the United States, declared a humanitarian and security crisis at the border. So it seemed very odd to me that, in 2019, they decided--when the numbers kept getting bigger and bigger and conditions worse and worse--all of a sudden that the humanitarian and security crisis had gone away.…
Said by
John Cornyn
Republican · Texas

Share

More from John Cornyn

Jul 21, 2026

Senator Graham was unyielding in his support for the Ukrainian people as they fight to defend their sovereignty.

ernst.senate.gov
Jun 18, 2026

The poll numbers that I'm seeing are not very encouraging. And I don't see things changing a lot between now and November.

npr.org
Jun 19, 2026

Texas is no stranger to extreme weather events, and it’s imperative that we have the infrastructure capable of withstanding the gamut of everything from freezing cold temperatures to sweltering heat waves, flooding, and devastating…

padilla.senate.gov

Other voices in this conversation