U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) on Wednesday held a weekly press briefing, speaking about key items of interest on which he is focused in Washington, D.C.
Alabama’s junior senator first built on the floor speech he delivered last week on the growing “national security and humanitarian crisis” at the United States’ southwest border.
“A week later, the numbers are getting worse by the day,” Tuberville lamented. “The Biden administration continues to ignore the realities of the problem.”
“Let me be clear: the situation at our southern border was preventable and predictable,” he continued. “We warned that reversing President Trump’s most successful border policies would lead to an increase of migrants coming across our border illegally. Now, we have seen it happen.”
The Republican also stressed that “it’s not just reckless border security policy, it’s reckless health policy to allow illegal immigrants to come in unvetted during a pandemic.”
Tuberville advised that U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported over 100,000 illegal border crossings last month alone, 300% more than February 2020.
He announced that he will travel next week to the Rio Grande Valley area of Texas with U.S. Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and John Cornyn (R-TX).
“We’re going to see the crisis firsthand and talk to the agents down there to get a feel for what they are dealing with every day,” Tuberville noted.
“We need President Biden to take this seriously,” he added. “Instead of blaming President Trump, he should continue with the policies that work, like the Migrant Protection Protocols program and continuing to build the wall.”
Tuberville on the press call again blasted H.R. 1, echoing a floor speech he delivered on Monday.
He also continued to push back against the Office of Management and Budget’s proposal to change the threshold for the qualification of Metropolitan Statistical Areas. This comes after he wrote a letter on Tuesday to the OMB deputy administrator on the topic. Tuberville argues that increasing the current minimum designation of an urban area to qualify as a “metro” population center from 50,000 to 100,000 would be especially detrimental to 12 cities in Alabama: Florence, Muscle Shoals, Decatur, Gadsden, Anniston, Oxford, Auburn, Opelika, Dothan, Daphne, Fairhope and Foley.
The freshman senator is warning of “serious negative impacts” stemming from this “shortsighted” change by OMB.
“A significant number of Federal grant programs are only accessible to cities designated as MSAs. Altering the existing standards in the manner proposed would prevent the aforementioned cities from utilizing these programs, many of which provide vital resources to underserved communities,” Tuberville wrote in his letter.
Tuberville subsequently concluded the call by emphasizing that while he will attempt to block actions by the Biden administration that are detrimental to the state of Alabama and its people, he hopes to work with the administration in a bipartisan manner, “side-by-side,” on issues that will “help this country and help the people of Alabama live a better life.”
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
