Rubio: Demings Has Failed 'to Secure our Border'

As border crossings continue to escalate, the 2022 Homeland Security funding bill has received criticism from Republican lawmakers in Washington. Even more criticism has been directed to lawmakers that have voted for it, and this has only increased the political rivalry between incumbent Senator Marco Rubio (R) and challenger Rep. Val Demings (D). After voting in favor of the bill, Senator Rubio's team slammed Demings, arguing that she has not taken “the necessary actions to secure our border.”

As explained by an outline of the bill, it "provides $81.1 billion in discretionary resources, including $77.9 billion for non-defense programs; $3.2 billion for defense-related programs; and $18.8 billion for major disaster response and recovery activities." Specifically, the funding "dramatically increases funding to protect our critical physical infrastructure, prevent cyber-attacks, and root out cyber intrusions," "invests strongly in maritime security through operational funding and investment in new fleet assets for the Coast Guard," and "makes responsible investments in border security and respects the dignity of immigrants with new funding to improve migrant processing and reduce backlogs in refugee, asylum, and immigration benefit applications."

However, Rubio's team is slamming lawmakers like Demings for voting in favor of the bill, saying that the bill doesn't provide the necessary funding to assist with illegal border crossings.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection numbers, "more than 2 million unauthorized migrants came across the Mexican border" in 2021, which has alarmed lawmakers and the Biden Administration.

Rubio's campaign, which has criticized President Biden's immigration policy, is now further arguing that Demings has contributed to this rise in illegal immigration. "Demings regularly votes in favor of Democrats' radical illegal immigration agenda, supporting illegal immigrants voting, sanctuary cities, and a pathway to citizenship for gang members and sexual abusers," said the team.

In a statement, Elizabeth Gregory, the communications director for Marco Rubio for Senate, added that “Demings has repeatedly failed to take the necessary actions to secure our border,” adding that “the spike in illegal border crossings has put a strain on our nation’s border officials, and yet Demings prevented granting the funding necessary to hire more personnel or construct new sections of the border wall.”