Senator John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, slammed Republican "irony" over his GOP colleagues' refusal to support a bipartisan border deal.
After months of negotiations, Republican and Democrat senators released a $118 billion foreign-aid package on Monday that includes money for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, along with policy changes and $20 billion to support America's immigration system and curb the recent surge in illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Senate is set to vote on the deal on Wednesday as supporters of the bill fear that it won't pass the House, with former President Donald Trump and GOP House members harshly criticizing the package.
Late last month, Trump, who is the GOP frontrunner in the 2024 presidential race, called the deal a "horrible open borders betrayal of America," at a rally in Las Vegas. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said in a letter to his GOP colleagues that the package would be "dead on arrival" if it reached the House.
Fetterman, who supports the border deal, called out his Republican colleagues who oppose it.
"The supreme irony of my career: During the 2022 campaign, the GOP bludgeoned me as a socialist with a hard-on for an open border," the senator told political news site PoliticusUSA in a statement published on Tuesday.
"Now I'm here in the Senate demanding a secure border, and they won't take yes for an answer. Who wants an open border now, Senate Republicans?"
Fetterman's statement was shared by Kyle Griffin, executive producer of MSNBC's The Weekend, via X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday.
Newsweek reached out to Fetterman's and Johnson's offices, as well as Trump's campaign via email for comment.
There were more than 2.4 million encounters at the southern border during the 2023 fiscal year, up from roughly 1.7 million in 2021, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.
Encounter data includes CBP Title 8 Apprehensions, Office of Field Operations Title 8 Inadmissibles and Title 42 Expulsions.
Republicans in Congress have long criticized America's immigration system and blamed President Joe Biden's administration for what they call its open-border policies.
Biden voiced his support of the new border deal in a speech at the White House on Tuesday, calling it "a win for America." During his speech, he criticized Trump for his attempt to kill the bill, saying that the former president would "rather weaponize this issue than actually solve it."
Fetterman shared his support for the border deal via X on Monday, writing, "Back in 1998, Sen. Simpson said that we'll never have any meaningful immigration legislation because it will forever be a useful political weapon.
"Here we are more than a quarter century later. I hope my Senate Republican colleagues don't prove him right," the senator said. "Let's PASS THIS BILL."
Fetterman has received some praise from Republicans in recent months for showing his more conservative side, supporting immigration reform and Israel in its war with Palestinian militant group Hamas.
"I'm not a progressive," Fetterman told NBC News in an article published in December 2023. "I just think I'm a Democrat that is very committed to choice and other things. But with Israel, I'm going to be on the right side of that. And immigration is something near and dear to me, and I think we do have to effectively address it, as well."
Correction 2/7/24, 3:50 p.m. ET: This story was updated to correct the amount allotted for the border to $20 billion.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Rachel Dobkin is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. Her focus is reporting on politics. Rachel joined Newsweek in ... Read more
