Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham is acting as a voice of reason in these crazy days where Democrats are defending the rights of illegal immigrants (emphasis on ILLEGAL) over the rights of their fellow lawful American countrymen.
After touring border facilities and visting illegal immigrants detained in Texas for himself with Vice President Mike Pence, Lindsay Graham chimed in on the controversy over the facilities.
In an appearance on Fox News segment Sunday Morning Futures, Graham stated,
“What I saw is a bunch of people who have been here before, broke the law before, and we’re not going to let them go. I don’t care if they have to stay in these facilities for 400 days, we’re not going to let those men go that I saw. It would be dangerous.”
Later on in the interview, Graham rebuked the narrative Dems like AOC are pushing about “inhumane” conditions at the facilities, saying “this is not a concentration camp that I saw. It is a facility overwhelmed. I’m willing to buy beds for these people…but I’m not going to let them go.”
Watch what Graham had to say on Fox for yourself here:
During his tour of the border facilities with VP Pence, Lindsay Graham had tweeted out:
Here's a video of the trip to the Texas border facilities that Graham spoke of in his interview with Fox:
Here's a partial transcript of what Graham had to tell Fox about the detention centers following his tour of them, via Real Clear Politics:
BARTIROMO: Yes, I want to talk a bit about what's going on at these detention centers. You were with the vice president on Friday.
GRAHAM: Yes.
BARTIROMO: You have been really studying this and leading this effort to change these loopholes in a big way.
I want to get your take about what really you saw there, and then we're going to show some pictures of some of the men behind bars. But, first, give us your reaction to your time on Friday.
GRAHAM: I saw a system completely overwhelmed for no good reason.
Our laws are set up such that if you can bring a small child to America coming from Central America, we can only hold a child for 20 days. Then we let the entire family go because we don't want to separate families. We can't process a case in 20 days.
What did I see? Fifty-two thousand people have been released into the interior of the United States from this one Border Patrol area alone. What did I see? A system about to break. I saw brave men and women who are doing an incredible job under difficult circumstances.
And I'm going to introduce a resolution next week praising them, the men and women of the Border Patrol and their allies. I saw 900 illegal immigrants that were captured for coming into our country illegally housed in detention facilities that was meant for 385. So they had to put a tent in the back.
What I saw is a bunch of people who have been here before, broke the law before, and we're not going to let them go. I don't care if they have to stay in these facilities for 400 days. We're not going to let those men go that I saw. It would be dangerous.
And also I saw that 60 different nations are sending people here illegally. We caught people from Iran, Syria, every place in the world. They're coming through our border.
BARTIROMO: Yes, they are coming from Bangladesh as well, right?
(CROSSTALK)
GRAHAM: Bangladesh, yes.
BARTIROMO: Yes, Bangladesh. You have got the Middle East.
So, let's take a look at what you just said. You said that the detention centers were meant to hold under 400 people.
GRAHAM: Right.
BARTIROMO: And there's actually 900 people in there.
These pictures are some of the pictures that have unnerved people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democrats, who say, look, we have these people behind bars.
You say what to those people who are looking at these adult men who are behind bars because they broke the law, they came into this country illegally?
GRAHAM: All of them broke our law.
Many of them -- many of them have done it before, and we're not going to let them go. This is not a concentration camp that I saw. It is a facility overwhelmed.
I'm willing to buy beds for these people, so they will have a better place to get a night's sleep, but I'm not going to let them go. And AOC and Democrats are trying to break the system, so that we let these people go.
They came here illegally, 700-and-something adult males, with criminal backgrounds by many of them, repeat offenders who've been caught before. We're not going to let them go. And I don't care if we have to build tents from Texas to Oklahoma. We're not going to let these people go. They're going to have their day in court. We're going to send them back.
Talking Points Memo has more to say about Graham's observations of the border detention facilities:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said on Sunday that he has no problem keeping the migrants in the squalid cells he saw during his detention facility tour in Texas with Vice President Mike Pence.
“What I saw is a bunch of people who have been here before, broke the law before, and we’re not going to let them go,” Graham told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo. “I don’t care if they have to stay in these facilities for 400 days, we’re not going to let those men go that I saw. It would be dangerous.”
Graham, who also serves as the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, claimed that “all of [the detained migrants] broke our law.”
“All of them broke our law,” Graham said. “Many of them have done it before. And we’re not going to let them go.”
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