Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said Wednesday that the Democratic Party's push for a path to citizenship in border legislation has failed the people they "care about most" in this country, "undocumented Americans."
MSNBC host Chris Hayes asked Murphy about the border security bill and said, rather than pushing for a path to citizenship in border legislation negotiations like the party has in the past, Democrats were using Ukraine funding.
"Well, I mean, Chris, that’s been a failed play for 20 years. So you are right that that has been the Democratic strategy for 30 years, maybe, and it has failed to deliver for the people we care about most, the undocumented Americans that are in this country," Murphy said.
"This is also not 2013 any longer, when we ran that play last. Back then, there were a couple hundred people showing up every day applying for asylum. Today, on some days, there are 8,000. And the reality is that the bulk of this country does not think that’s right or sustainable and wants us to change the reality at the border," the Democratic senator added.
SENATE RELEASES LONG-AWAITED BORDER LEGISLATION, MAJOR ASYLUM CHANGES
Murphy said there was a temptation among Democrats to run the "same play" they always run, but added they had a responsibility to adjust to what the country wants, because the play has not worked.
"Now this bill still had in it some very important things for migrant rights, including a right to representation and earlier work permits, and the biggest expansion of visas in 30 years. It’s not a pathway to citizenship, but it is something substantial for people that actually care about migrants," he continued.
He said none of it mattered, because the GOP was "allergic" to passing border legislation.
Hayes asked Murphy if he was "proud" of the bill they put forward and wondered if he believed this would improve things at the southern border.
"I think you are watching the issue of migration take down left and center-left governments all around the world right now. I think we’re at the point where if we didn’t bring some sense of order to the border, if we didn’t make a big down payment on reform to the asylum system, we were gonna have a really hard time holding on to a consensus in this country that we should keep legal immigration pathways alive," Murphy responded during his media appearance.
"And so, I am of the belief that this is a moment where you had to show some big bipartisan momentum and progress on the border, or you would never, ever have the ability to try to rescue the undocumented Americans that desperately need to help," he added.
Senate Republicans criticized the bill and argued that it wouldn't solve the border crisis.
"I’ve reviewed the bill, I don’t think it will solve our border crisis, and might make it worse. I will oppose it," Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., posted to social media on Monday. "The bill gives Secretary Mayorkas the right—for the first time—to grant asylum claims (and thus American citizenship) to illegal aliens at the border without review by the immigration courts, which will be a massive pathway to rubber-stamping amnesty."
Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., called the bill "another Ukraine aid package that weakly addresses Biden's border crisis."
"I will be a 'No' vote," he wrote on X.
Fox News' Jamie Joesph contributed to this report.
