Exclusive – Sen. Marsha Blackburn at Border: ‘Walls Work'

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), the senior senator from Tennessee and a member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, toured the U.S.-Mexico border Tuesday and told Breitbart News that what she found is that the physical barriers Texans are putting up are slowing the flow of migrants into the country.

Blackburn visited Eagle Pass, Texas, a place she had visited in early 2023, and found a much different picture than when she was there last time because Texans are using things such as buoys in the Rio Grande and shipping containers at the water’s edge, along with fencing and razor wire, to stop the flow of migrants.

“I took the time to go back to Eagle Pass, if you remember I was there last January in 2023,” Blackburn told Breitbart News. “Eagle Pass was kind of the hotspot. What the state of Texas has done is begin to put barriers in place. They have put buoys in place in the river. They have got containers at the water’s edge and they have got razor wire and fencing to help secure their border, actually secure it. The crossings are greatly diminished. Eagle Pass was seeing thousands of people coming across their border, and today it’s in the dozens. I was actually out in the water and we saw about 12 people trying to cross.”

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Blackburn has two key pieces of legislation before the U.S. Senate she said would help address these issues. The first, called the CONTAINER Act, would allow state and local governments to build such barriers when the federal government fails, as it is currently doing under Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration. The second, called the CLEAR Act, would broadcast a message throughout the world from the United States that migrants who enter illegally are not welcome and will be sent home.

“It shows why we need to pass my CONTAINER Act, which would allow state and local governments to put temporary barriers in place when the federal government is failing to do their job,” Blackburn said. “I think it’s also why we need to pass my CLEAR Act sending that message ‘don’t even come’ and ‘if you do something wrong, we’re going to send you right back home.’”

While Eagle Pass is having success using these barriers to deter migration, Blackburn said migrants are going elsewhere like El Paso, Arizona, and California to get around them and into the country. She pointed to the wild video that showed migrants storming the country in El Paso that came out earlier this month and noted that officials have said other states have served as other avenues into the country as Texas fights back on its own without support from Washington.

“You saw the group at El Paso. We’re hearing that Arizona has seen an uptick,” Blackburn said. “California has seen an uptick. Because of that, people are looking for places they can cross where they don’t have those kinds of barriers but it shows you why it’s so important to secure that southern border.”

The big picture here, though, as a possible spring and summer migrant surge looms, is that Blackburn says that physical barriers — walls — on the border work.

“There again, as you’re saying, walls work,” Blackburn said. “We know that. One of the Texas DPS officers today said ‘look, we’ve been saying for years we need a physical barrier, we need better technology because the cartels are definitely monitoring our local and federal law enforcement with technology, and then of course we need to make certain we have more officers and agents on the ground.’”

Biden, meanwhile, refuses to take the actions necessary to secure the border. Blackburn pointed to more than 90 executive actions Biden took in his first 100 days that opened the border including Biden eliminating remain-in-Mexico and reinstating catch-and-release. She said Biden is less interested in actually solving the problem and more interested in papering over it by sending blue cities that have been crushed by migration more money to sustain the high flow of migration — rather than stopping it and sending the migrants home.

“Of course, Joe Biden could choose to take some actions and reverse the 94 executive actions he took in the first 100 days. He could do that,” Blackburn said. “But he has chosen not to do that. His border policy is an open border — that is his border policy. We know that. I doubt he would take any action that will secure the border. He’s trying to find things that would mitigate some of the issues around those that are illegally in the country being in the country, like more money to blue cities that are saying ‘send us money because now we have these illegal migrants that have come to our cities.’ But that’s not the answer. The answer is what I heard from Texas DPS today: You need a physical barrier because a barrier works. You need better technology. You need more officers and agents. And President Trump didn’t have this problem because he had secured the border. This is why we need to pass my CONTAINER Act, which gives the authority to state and local governments to secure the border when the federal government does not do that and it is why we need to be deporting criminal illegal aliens and making certain they do not get to stay in the country.”

What’s more, Blackburn said Texas law enforcement officials told her they have seized tens of thousands of pounds of illegal drugs including marijuana, methamphetamine, and fentanyl. She said the fentanyl seizures they have made represent enough fentanyl to kill every single American nationwide.

“Texas DPS actually had some information on that and what they’ve done since they started Operation Lone Star is they have apprehended something like 31,000 pounds of marijuana and 14,000 pounds of meth and 2,000 pounds of fentanyl — think about that,” Blackburn said. “That’s enough fentanyl to kill every person in the United States. Being able to secure the border and to focus your work, that’s an important thing to do.”

Perhaps the most important part of her trip, though, was listening to local ranchers, farmers, law enforcement, and business owners who said that they feel like the White House is not listening to them.

“I had lunch with some ranchers and farmers and of course there were some local law enforcement there and some businesspeople who were there on the border,” Blackburn said. “They feel as if the White House is not listening to them. If the White House were listening to them then they would be helping them to secure their farms and ranches. Right now, they’re finding themselves and their homes and their property and their farms and their barns and their farm equipment on the front line. You’ve got homes and barns and shops that are being broken into. You’ve got vehicles they are absconding with, and they would really appreciate it if the White House would just say: ‘What do you need to secure this border?’ I think number one would be build us a physical barrier.”