(Fox News) Every Democratic lawmaker in the Senate voted against an amendment that would bar taxpayer funds from being used to fly illegal aliens to U.S. towns and cities, according to the Republican senator behind the amendment.
“Tonight every single Senate Democrat voted against my amendment that would stop Biden Admin from using taxpayer dollars to charter flights for hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens from their countries directly to American towns to be resettled,” Republican Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty tweeted early Saturday morning.
“Indefensible,” he added.
Hagerty announced earlier last week that he was set to file an amendment to the appropriations bill that would “prohibit federal funds from being used to secretly fly illegal aliens from other nations directly into states across the country,” according to his office’s press release.
Tonight every single Senate Democrat voted against my amendment that would stop Biden Admin from using taxpayer dollars to charter flights for hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens from their countries directly to American towns to be resettled.
Indefensible. pic.twitter.com/ofTnhSPnY8
— Senator Bill Hagerty (@SenatorHagerty) March 23, 2024
The amendment was in response to recent news stories reporting the Biden administration flew an estimated 320,000 illegal immigrants from their home nations to the U.S. in 2023.
“Let me cut through the procedural language here. I’m bringing forward a vote on a very simple question: Do you support American taxpayer dollars being used to fly illegal aliens into the United States from places like Venezuela and Haiti, into America to be settled in towns and cities near you? If so, then vote against me. Vote ‘no’ to preserve the practice of using taxpayer dollars to charter planes that move and import thousands of illegal aliens into your states,” Hagerty said Friday on the floor of the Senate.
Senator Bill Hagerty speaks during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on March 7, 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Lawmakers voted the measure down, 51-47. All Democrats voted against the amendment, but no Republicans did.
The amendment was included in the Senate’s late-night vote Friday to avoid a government shutdown. The House passed the $1.2 trillion government funding bill earlier Friday, before making its way to the Senate, where lawmakers were in a standoff on whether to vote on amendments to the bill.
