U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) on Monday took to the Senate floor to discuss policies that he believes to be jeopardizing Americans’ security such as illegal immigration and efforts by some in the Democratic Party to divert funding from police forces across the nation.
“When I go home back to Alabama, I usually ask the people back home what’s most important to you,” said Tuberville. “And usually there is a consensus of three things — a good job, schools for their kids, and safe neighborhoods for their families. That’s always what they talk about.”
Tuberville pushed back against rhetoric used by progressives that he believes has contributed to the rise of crime numbers nationwide.
“We’re witnessing a nationwide surge in crime as we speak. In the last year, homicides have risen upwards of 30%,” said Tuberville. “This is unprecedented and double the largest previous increase of 13% since 1968. There always is more than one factor to consider when analyzing crime trends, but the effect of some Democrats’ anti-police rhetoric has been perfectly clear.”
He continued, “For the last year, we’ve heard some Democrats at every level talk about wanting to defund the police. We’ve got too many of them. In many cities, they control democrats succeeding, they’ve been very successful. They’ve told police to stop doing their jobs, stop enforcing certain laws. Too often we’ve seen elected officials take the side of radicals burning property, burning small businesses, over the men and women who wear the badge and have sworn to preserve and protect our communities. And now we’re seeing the consequences all across the country.”
Alabama’s junior senator then turned his criticisms toward the Biden administration regarding its policy toward immigration enforcement and border security.
“What’s also not helping to make our neighborhoods safer — the growing crisis at our southern border,” said Tuberville. “And the Biden Administration completely, completely lacks the urgency to fix it, and it’s getting worse every day. We’ve already surpassed one million illegal immigrants since President Biden was inaugurated. And remember, this data is looking at the illegal immigrants and the drugs that the Customs and Border Protection catches. We don’t know how many have slipped by.”
“President Biden is only making matters worse, folks,” he added. “As our colleagues on the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee found, the Biden Administration is spending $2 billion to not build a wall. That’s $3 million every day of your taxpayer money wasted just to not build something that would help fix this crisis.”
Tuberville made the argument that mass crime is antithetical to the quality of life Americans expect.
“Wanting safe communities is something every American wants and deserves,” he emphasized. We elect public officials, we pay taxes, and trust our governments to ensure safety for the greatest number of people possible. It’s pretty much impossible to have good jobs and good schools if you don’t have safe neighborhoods.”
Tuberville concluded, “If the people don’t feel safe, their government, and we as government officials, have failed to perform its most basic function. Failure of this is not an option. So, to reverse this rise in crime, let’s support the very people who put their lives on the line every day. I certainly do, and I encourage the president and members of this body to support every member of our law enforcement.”
Dylan Smith is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
