Sen. Chris Coons: Legislation is the best way to solve this immigration crisis

Joining us now is Delaware Senator Chris Coons who sits on the Foreign Relations and Judiciary committees and is Co chair of President Biden's re election campaign. Welcome back to Fox News Sunday, Senator. Thanks, Shannon. Great to be on with you. OK, so we've just had some reporting on the border. So let's start there. Just days ago, the president took executive action this time in order that will essentially give people a pathway to citizenship who've been here for years illegally. They won't have to stay. They will be able to stay in the US. They won't have to leave. The Federation for American Immigration Reform says this parole in place is a concept created out of thin air. Parole authority authorizes the government to permit the entry of aliens into the United States for temporary periods of time on a case by case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. It was not intended that it be used to grant quasi legal status to illegal aliens already in the country. So rather than enforcing existing laws, why is the president creating another executive order, another pathway that not only rewards people for being here illegally for years, potentially hundreds of thousands of them, but may attract even more? So, Shannon, President Biden has recently signed 2 executive orders on the border and immigration. The one you're just referring to, which allows those who've been here more than 10 years and are married to U.S. citizens a pathway towards a green card. This follows a program that also existed under former President Trump, where members of the US military who have someone who's here without documentation but is married to a member of our Armed Services to get a green card. The other executive order President Biden signed strengthens border enforcement, makes it harder for those coming to our southern border to seek asylum in balance. We've already seen the number of encounters at the border go down as a result. But the stronger, more effective action to address border security and our broken immigration system would be real legislation passed by Congress. It'd be more permanent. It would bring more resources that would actually solve the problem. And my friend, conservative Republican Senator James Lankford and several others, Senators Murphy and Sinema, put forward a bipartisan deal that would have done that a few months ago. It wasn't signed into law only because former President Trump campaigned heavily against it the day before we took it up. The former president wants an issue for the election. President Biden is trying to solve this problem for our country. But, you know, in him, first of all, Republicans had a number of objections to what they saw coming out of that bipartisan negotiation, and they likely would. Not many of them have voted for it anyway. But you've also got the president coming in on day one. We talked about this repealing numerous executive orders, some of them paralleling what he's doing now, trying to fix the situation. I mean, our new Fox polling shows that 63% of people disapprove of how he's doing on immigration. When they are asked head to head with President Trump, they give President Trump a nine point advantage on that. We are seeing record numbers of people showing up. We've got reporting on crimes involving rapes, murders, kidnappings, all kinds of things that wouldn't have happened absent people being in this country illegally so they could commit those crimes. I want to play something from Democrat Wes Moore. He's the governor of Maryland. One of his constituents, Rachel Morin, was killed. The suspect, she's a mother of five, is somebody who came here illegally. That's got to play out. But here's what he's saying. In the meantime, I'm infuriated. And, and, and our state is still mourning. When people think about the border crisis and they think that this is only impacting a handful of states. You know, Harford County in our state where this, where this, where this brutal murder happened is 1800 miles away from the border and yet every state now is a border state. How does the buck not stop with the president's on this issue? Well, Shannon, President Biden in his State of the Union address this year extended his hand to former President Trump and said instead of blocking legislation, instead of campaigning against legislation that I believe would have passed if it had gotten to the floor, work with me. Let's solve this problem. Let's put down the tools and find a lasting solution. There was a bipartisan solution ready for us to take it up, would not have stopped these people who are in a number of these recent cases, Shannon, that they were ready to vote for that deal after months of hard work crafting a real bipartisan solution. It still would have allowed thousands of people into this country, whether they showed up. And we're just let in because of detention issues, which, you know, we know they're empty ICE beds. We know that there are problems with funding, but also the CBP One app would have allowed a lot of these folks in. So when we talk about these recent crimes and gosh, we've had a list, they are tragic. Nobody wants them to happen. But that legislation would not have stopped those people from coming into this country. You can't assume that every person seeking asylum in this country is going to commit a crime, Shannon, Correct. It only matters that it's one, I mean, when it's an American life. What's your question, Shannon? Well, the question is if, if and we know the vast majority of people coming here are simply seeking a better life or asylum from a dangerous situation at home. But because the situation has become so porous at the border, it does allow for bad actors. And whether it's 5 or 10 or 15, these are American lives that have been devastated because of them being able to manipulate and leverage the system as it now exists. I agree, Shannon, we need to get control of our border. And I hope folks will pay attention to what the former president has said and done on law enforcement. He called for defunding the FBI. It's the FBI that is enforcing federal laws and is helping make our country safer. We also have seen a significant drop in crime under President Biden, who has invested in law enforcement nationally. The American Rescue Plan funded federal, state, and local law enforcement at record levels. Shannon, as folks look about who's better positioned to keep us safe going forward, I hope folks won't overlook that former President Trump incited a riot at the Capitol on January 6th where law enforcement officers who protect all of us in the Capitol every day were assaulted. And he is a convicted felon. I think that stands in sharp contrast to President Biden's defense of the rule of law and the agenda he's putting forward to strengthen our law enforcement and our border security. OK. And that is a whole nother show. And listen, we're going to get to some of that later because we are talking about cases here at the Supreme Court that involved January 6th defendants who I think most good people out there think if you assault a law enforcement officer, that's a crime. But let me talk to you about what else is coming from the court because you sit on the Judiciary Committee, you have great interest as all Americans do and what's happening here. You know, there's been some praise from the administration on things like the MIFA persons decision, the abortion drug nine O leaving that on the market. The justices did that. And also an 8 to one decision this week saying if you're under domestic violence order, you should not have access to a gun. But at the same time, the president will brag about things like defying the Supreme Court, who told him he could not forgive billions of dollars in student loans. So you talk about law and order. Will this president respect what comes from this court with respect to presidential immunity, with respect to January 6th? Or does he just pick and choose the decisions he likes from the Supreme Court? Look, I think there's a sharp contrast between former President Trump and President Biden in terms of their respect for the rule of law and how they approach both law enforcement and our legal system. Former President Trump was in a courtroom in New York where he attacked the prosecutor, the prosecution, the judge, the jury, the whole process so many times that before he was ultimately convicted by a jury of his peers of 34 felonies, he was subject to a gag order. President Biden, we just saw evidence of this this past week. His own son was convicted here in a court in Wilmington, DE, and he did not ever attack or criticize or question the judge, the prosecutor, the jury, the process. In fact, he said he wouldn't use the pardon power. That is a sharp and clear contrast in how they respect. But he has repeatedly, he has repeatedly attacked the Supreme Court. And he said he doesn't care what they said on student loans. Look, I've raised questions, as have many of us in the Senate about the lack of a binding code of ethics for the Supreme Court. One of the justices, Justice Thomas, has accepted millions of dollars of unreported gifts of travel and hospitality over many years. And it is the only court, It is the only group of federal judges or justices who have no binding court code of ethics. We recently tried to pass through the Senate the Supreme Court Ethics Recusal and Transparency Act, and it was blocked by my Republican colleagues. Every other federal judge in our country has a binding code of ethics. So does the Senate. So does the House. I think the Supreme Court should as well. Well, Senator, I'll ask our next guest about that, your colleague Lindsey Graham on the Judiciary Committee, the ranking member as well. And as you know, they do have guidelines, filings and ethics and otherwise. All nine of them signed a letter to you guys over in the Senate, all nine of these justices. But the debate over the ethics legislation will continue. We'll talk about that with Senator Graham. Thank you very much, Senator. Appreciate your time.