Every Democratic lawmaker in the Senate voted against an amendment that would bar taxpayer funds from being used to fly illegal aliens to U.S. towns and cities, according to the Republican senator behind the amendment.
“Tonight every single Senate Democrat voted against my amendment that would stop Biden Admin from using taxpayer dollars to charter flights for hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens from their countries directly to American towns to be resettled,” Republican Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty tweeted early Saturday morning.
“Indefensible,” he added.
Hagerty announced earlier last week that he was set to file an amendment to the appropriations bill that would “prohibit federal funds from being used to secretly fly illegal aliens from other nations directly into states across the country,” according to his office’s press release.
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The amendment was in response to recent news stories reporting the Biden administration flew an estimated 320,000 illegal immigrants from their home nations to the U.S. in 2023.
“Let me cut through the procedural language here. I’m bringing forward a vote on a very simple question: Do you support American taxpayer dollars being used to fly illegal aliens into the United States from places like Venezuela and Haiti, into America to be settled in towns and cities near you? If so, then vote against me. Vote ‘no’ to preserve the practice of using taxpayer dollars to charter planes that move and import thousands of illegal aliens into your states,” Hagerty said Friday on the floor of the Senate.
Senator Bill Hagerty speaks during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on March 7, 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Lawmakers voted the measure down, 51-47. All Democrats voted against the amendment, but no Republicans did.
The amendment was included in the Senate’s late-night vote Friday to avoid a government shutdown. The House passed the $1.2 trillion government funding bill earlier Friday, before making its way to the Senate, where lawmakers were in a standoff on whether to vote on amendments to the bill.
More than a thousand migrants awaiting entry into the United States from Juarez, Mexico. (Fox News Digital/Jon Michael Raasch)
“Let me explain what’s happening right now,” Hagerty said on X ahead of the vote on the bill and his amendment. “Democrat Senators are afraid to take a position on Biden’s failed policies by voting on amendments to the appropriations bill. They’d rather shut down the government than take a position on President Biden’s failures.”
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The Senate ultimately cleared the spending bill after the midnight deadline to avert a government shutdown, following votes on a handful of Republican-backed amendments and proposals. The Senate voted 74-24 to fund the government through September, sending the bill to President Biden’s desk, which he signed Saturday.
None of the Republican-backed amendments passed. If any amendments had passed, the bill would have returned to the House, which just began a two-week recess, for review.
Sen. Bill Hagerty waves during the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) Annual Leadership Meeting in Las Vegas on Nov. 18, 2022. (Ronda Churchill/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Hagerty’s tweet detailing how each Democrat voted against his amendment has racked up more than 30 million views as of Sunday, with critics of the Democratic lawmakers’ votes yielding condemnation online.
“This is insane!” tech billionaire Elon Musk tweeted.
“We’re witnessing in real time the planned and controlled destruction of this country,” former University of Kentucky swimmer and activist Riley Gaines tweeted in response.
Hagerty responded to Musk’s tweet, arguing Democrats “are trying to hide” his legislation.
“That’s why Chuck Schumer scheduled this vote in the middle of the night (on Friday). He did the same 2 weeks ago on my vote to stop illegals from being counted in the census. They are trying to hide it,” he posted on X Sunday morning.
At least 7.2 million illegal immigrants have entered the U.S. under the Biden administration, which is greater than the population of 36 individual states, Fox News Digital reported earlier this year.
A report published by the Center for Immigration Studies, a nonpartisan think tank, found the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has allowed “secret flights” to transport illegal aliens from Latin America to communities across the U.S.
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Roughly 320,000 migrants were flown to 43 different American airports from January through December 2023, according to the report.
