Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen's testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee proves there is a crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, Senate Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., said Wednesday, but he does not know if she will convince House Democrats who "seem to have made up their minds."
"The numbers that she is putting out there that are more recent show that the numbers are spiking," Sen. Thune told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "We were averaging about 60,000 illegal border crossings every month. This last month, that was 76,000. Of course, we know in that group you've got drug dealers and traffickers and gang members."
In addition, there are many unaccompanied children and families with children coming across the border, creating a humanitarian crisis, Thune said.
However, Democrats have a "hatred" for President Donald Trump, and that has "blinded" them to address the crisis at the border, Thune said.
"[Nielsen] needs resources down there, manpower, technology, all the things that are necessary from a national security standpoint," Thune said. "The facts are there, the evidence is all there."
Thune also blasted some calls being made by left-wing Democrats for agenda items such as the Green New Deal and a government-run healthcare system.
"These people are living in fantasy land if they think that a government-run healthcare system at a cost of $33 trillion, a Green New Deal . . . which ends up being about $650,000 per family per household in this country over the next 10 years," Thune said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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