Fact Check: Walz Claims the Immigration Bill Failed Because of Trump

CLAIM: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) claimed that former President Donald Trump tanked a “bipartisan” immigration and border bill because of politics.

VERDICT: MOSTLY FALSE. The bill was so bad that it never would have passed on its own merits.

Walz rolled out a familiar talking point at the vice presidential debate on CBS News in New York on Tuesday evening, claiming that Trump is the only reason that a “bipartisan” immigration bill failed that would supposedly have secured the border.

The bill would never have passed — not because of Trump, but because it legalized immigration at the massive levels — up to 5,000 migrants per day — that have led to the current migration crisis at the southern border.

Sen. James Lankford (R-OH), the Republican who negotiated the bill, joined Democrats in hiding details of the bill. When the legislation emerged, the details were so shocking that even if Trump had supported it, arguably, it would have failed.

Bills in the Senate need more than a simple majority to pass; they need a 60-vote supermajority to move to a final vote. And there is no way Lankford would have found eight more Republican votes in a 51-49 Senate.

The fact is that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris — the so-called “border czar,” though she currently denies it — already have the authority they need to enforce the border and immigration law. They simply refuse to do so, and reversed Trump’s most successful immigration policies on taking office. And bills on immigration have consistently failed for one simple reason: they do not place border security before legalization. That has been as true under Republican administrations, and in Republican-run Congresses, as in Democratic ones.

Certainly Trump did not want Biden to have a political “win” — and the ability to claim, falsely, that he had solved the border crisis by passing a bill. That is one reason he opposed it. But he also opposed it on the substance, and it was so bad that even Trump could not have saved it.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.