Senate Democrat says most of GOP ‘delights at chaos at the border’

Sen. Chris Murphy accused Republicans on Sunday of rooting for the southern border to be overrun by migrants for political gain as the end of the COVID-area policy known as Title 42 is expected to prompt more illegal crossings.

Title 42, which allowed the U.S. to turn migrants away at the U.S.-Mexico border without applying for asylum in the name of public health, ended late Thursday with the expiration of the official pandemic health emergency.

“Republicans have had multiple opportunities to come to the table and pass immigration reform that would fix the problem at the border,” Mr. Murphy, Connecticut Democrat, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And my belief is that while you have a small group of Republicans who legitimately want to engage, the majority of that party delights at chaos at the border.”

The Biden administration is reimplementing a prior immigration policy with stricter legal consequences in a bid to stem the flow of migrants overwhelming southern border communities.

However, it’s failed to ease the fierce criticism from Republicans of the president’s policies.

House Republicans passed a border security bill last week just before Title 42 expired that Senate Democrats say is dead on arrival, while a bipartisan bill to extend Title 42 for two years is being led by Sens. Thom Tillis, North Carolina Republican, and Kyrsten Sinema, Arizona independent.

Mr. Murphy suggested that Republicans have no intentions of finding a solution that could muster enough support to become law and that would address other immigration policies aside from preventing illegal crossings, such as changes to the asylum process and protections for those who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

“You saw some of my colleagues on Tuesday as soon as votes were done, rushed down to the border to take smiling photographs with the border patrol, essentially celebrating the fact that there was chaos because they believe that there’s political gain to be had,” Mr. Murphy said. “I think Americans know that it’s Republicans, not Democrats, that have been sitting next to fixing our broken immigration system.”