Lindsey Graham admits Trump's wall 'will not fix' problems at the border

Sen. Lindsey Graham, the flip-flopping South Carolina Republican who went from trashing Trump repeatedly to being one of his biggest defenders, said the quiet part out loud Tuesday during a hearing on Central American migrants.

Graham admitted that Trump’s expensive and unpopular border wall will do nothing to stop the flow of immigrants fleeing violence and poverty in their home countries to claim asylum in the United States.

“A wall will not fix this problem,” Graham said at a Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on how to deal with the flow of immigrants on the U.S.-Mexico border.

“The only way a wall would fix this problem is to build it in Mexico so they never step a foot in the United States. But once you step one foot in the United States and you claim asylum, we have a major dysfunctional system,” Graham whined, complaining that U.S. asylum laws are too generous.

Current law does allow refugees to seek asylum in the United States and have their claims heard by a court system that decides whether their fears from their home country warrant asylum.

And a wall wouldn’t change that, as many of the immigrants seeking asylum cross the border at points of entry and turn themselves in to authorities to make their asylum claims.

However, Trump is still hell-bent on getting border wall funding, declaring a fake national emergency so that he can steal funds Congress already appropriated elsewhere to build the pointless wall.

Even more, Trump’s plan to stop the flow of immigrants seeking asylum in the U.S. is draconian and racist, and won’t stop the problem.

Trump falsely claimed the U.S. is “full” and is demanding that Mexico stop Central American migrants before they make it to the United States. Trump has also grossly maligned those seeking asylum, claiming they’re running a “scam” and lying about fleeing persecution and gang violence. He wants to make it even harder for them to have their claims granted.

Senate Republicans are set to debate a border funding bill next week, according to Politico. But given that Trump has tanked any immigration reform bills with his demands for policies far out of the mainstream, it’s unclear what will come from that.

At least Graham is finally admitting that Trump’s stupid wall won’t do anything to fix the problem.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.