While not referring to the current southern border situation as a crisis, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., did call it a "challenge," and said the matter must not "be underestimated" Thursday.
"We've got to deal with it, and deal with it directly," Durbin said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "The word is out in Central America. There's a new administration, and it's being tested."
He also said smugglers and others are exploiting "some of the poorest people in our hemisphere and telling them stories about what is going to happen when they finally reach the border if they'll pay large sums of money to get there."
Despite those hurdles, Durbin said he agrees "completely" with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who has said the nation must not return to the "zero-tolerance" policies of the Trump administration "where children, infants, and toddlers were forcibly removed from their parents."
"That is unacceptable," Durbin said. "We have to have a humane, sensible, and orderly approach."
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is sending back adult migrants entering illegally across the border, but "doing our best" to treat child migrants humanely and in an orderly fashion, and "that has created some strains on the system because of the numbers."
"But at the end of the day, we're going to need an orderly process at the border and the American people want it and we're going to deliver it," Durbin said.
To alleviate the situation, more immigration judges are needed so cases can be approved in a "much faster" way than they are now, Durbin said.
"Secondly, we should make it clear that those who want to apply for asylum basically should do it in their home countries, not come to the border of the United States and create this awful situation," he said. "We need to work with the Central American countries and with Mexico to get that done."
Durbin also talked about the division in the Senate, and the current call from Democrats to end the filibuster. He pointed out several major achievements -- including the impeachment trial, a reconciliation bill, and the confirmations of President Joe Biden's nominees -- were not affected by the filibuster rule.
Still, Durbin said the filibuster has a "stranglehold" on the Senate when invoking it used to be rare.
"There was always the prospect out there, but it was rarely applied," Durbin said. "Now it is commonplace. Whenever you're thinking about bringing a bill to the floor, the first question is, can I find a supermajority to support this bill? Because if I can't, any member can phone in a filibuster, stop the proceedings on the floor, and take the weekend off at home. That is unacceptable."
It might make a difference to return to the talking filibuster, as Biden says he wants because people invoking the procedure might think again if they had to do more than call one in to stop the proceedings.
"We all remember Jimmy Stewart and we understand what happened to Mr. Smith," said Durbin, remembering the movie classic "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," and the scenes showing Stewart's hours-long filibuster speech.
"When he wanted the filibuster in his days, he had to stand there as long as he wanted to stop the Senate," Durbin said. "That is no longer the case. Members make a call to the cloakroom right off the Senate floor and say 'oh, I think I might file some demand for cloture on this, stop the proceedings,' and that's it."
Matters might be different, he said, if senators had to stand and speak at length because of their convictions.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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