Lindsey Graham bypasses Dems' stall of border bill

.@SenatorLeahy: "I wasn't here last week because a member of my family was being buried that day."@LindseyGrahamSC: "Duly noted. I apologize…I don't mean to make it personal, but I was told nobody's going to come for the expressed purpose, so I could not mark this bill up." pic.twitter.com/an6ZaR68hX

— CSPAN (@cspan) August 1, 2019

After Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee blocked for seven weeks a bill addressing the border crisis, the chairman, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., held a vote just before the recess, evoking cries from Democrats that he broke the panel's rules.

"You may not like what we do here," an exasperated Graham replied to his colleagues. "You can vote no. But this committee is not going to be the dead-end committee on things that matter. ... We're going to deal with the nation's problems."

The bill, the Secure and Protect Act, passed the committee on a 12-10 party-line vote.

It would require any asylum seeker from Central America to apply outside of the United States, the Daily Caller reported. In an effort to help prevent immigration fraud, it also would extend the time that migrant families must be kept in detention centers from 20 days to 100 days.

And it treats unaccompanied children from Central America the same as children entering from Canada and Mexico, sending them back to their home country after a screening.

Democrats protesting the bill refused to attend a panel session last week. Graham went ahead with a vote Thursday while Democrats accused him of violating rules allowing for amendments and requiring minority participation in certain actions, such as ending debate.

"What am I supposed to do?" Graham asked. "We have a right to vote."

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., called it an "illegitimate process" and the ranking member, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., ripped up a copy of the committee's rules.

"Apparently, it’s for legislation to give the president what he wants in his political war on immigration," Leahy said. "It's supposed to be the Senate Judiciary Committee, not the Donald Trump committee."

Graham acknowledged that the bill might not pass the full Senate and likely would not pass the Democratic-majority House. But he said he didn't want to leave for the August recess without acting.

'I take this very personally'

The Republican chairman insisted he didn't break any rules, accusing Democrats of intentionally refusing to show up to a hearing on the bill last week and delaying its passage for seven weeks.

"Here's the way I take what you did last week, your saying I really can't be chairman. After seven weeks of holding my own bill, under this scenario I can't even pass a bill that I introduced as chairman because two of you won't show up," Graham said.

"I will work with you as long as I can in good faith, but you are not going to take my job away from me! I take this very personally. I tried my best."

Leahy said he wasn't at the hearing last week because "a member of my family was being buried that day."

Graham expressed sympathy to his colleague but focused on the issue at hand.

"I don't mean to make it personal, but I was told nobody's going to come for the expressed purpose, so I could not mark this bill up," he said.

Graham said in a statement he will "no longer allow our asylum laws to be exploited by human traffickers, smugglers and cartels."

"Cartels, smugglers and human traffickers are profiting off immigrants and helping them take advantage of our broken asylum laws," he said. "I will no longer allow the loopholes in our laws to be exploited. I will not aid and abet these horrific practices. My bill fixes these problems."