Border Patrol union boss rips McConnell for funding border security overseas, defunding at home

Border Patrol union chief Brandon Judd is blasting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and 18 Senate GOP allies for supporting the Senate-passed $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill that funds border security in other countries while slamming the brakes on border security spending in the U.S.

On Monday, the Kentucky Senator gave his blessing to the $1.7 trillion spending bill, which provides border security assistance for five Middle Eastern nations but prohibits spending to strengthen or even maintain current U.S. border security capabilities.

The one-year funding measure passed by a 68-29 vote in the Senate, according to the Associated Press and is expected to pass the Democrat-led House.

"I'm absolutely just disgusted that some Republicans are willing to throw the American people under the bus and that they're not willing to provide border security," Judd said Wednesday on the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show. 

The omnibus spending bill bars U.S. Customs and Border Protection from using its $1.5 billion in funding to "acquire, maintain or extend border security technology and capabilities, except for technology and capabilities to improve Border Patrol processing."

"It expressly prohibits CBP funding from being used to improve border security," North Carolina Republican Rep. Dan Bishop tweeted.

"... but at the same time allocates $410 million towards border security for Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Oman," he continued in a follow-up tweet. "America Last in action."

"If you look at the omnibus, it specifically says that they can't provide money to actual border security measures," said Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council. "It's going to process people through the system quicker. When we process people quicker, that just encourages more people to cross our borders illegally. That's wrong."

The possible impending expiration of Title 42 will make an already dire situation on the border even worse, Judd warned. 

"Our border is in fact broken," he said. "All you have to do is look at what this administration has done. We have already released or people have gotten away to the tune of 4.5 million. And once Title 42 goes away, that number is going to jump up to 10 million."

Title 42 is a public health authority exercised during the pandemic that allowed for the rapid expulsion of illegal border crossers prior to an asylum hearing if they are from a country where a communicable disease is present. Many Republican lawmakers have argued to keep it in place in order to stop illegal immigration. 

On Monday, the Supreme Court paused the termination of Title 42, which had been set to expire this week as a result of lower court rulings.

"At the end of this administration, we're going to have 15 million new illegal border crossers in our country alone," Judd predicted. "That's how broken our borders are right now."

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre got backlash recently for saying the termination of Title 42 didn't mean the border was open. 

Judd rebutted Jean-Pierre's claim that criticism of Biden's lax border controls invites illegal crossings.

"Her title should be 'chief of propaganda,'" Judd said, as she apparently "does not want the American public to know the truth."

The Biden administration's weak border enforcement itself is what has opened the floodgates to surging human trafficking and drug smuggling controlled by organized crime cartels in Mexico, Judd asserted. 

"The cartels act on actions, and this administration's actions have clearly shown that the border is in fact open," he said. "It doesn't matter what [Jean-Pierre] says. She can say that the border is not open. She can say that people aren't crossing the border illegally. She can say all of those things, which are lies, by the way.

"The simple fact is that these cartels are generating profit off of this administration's policies. That's what they listen to. That's what they watch. Its actions, not words."