AT SENATE LEADERSHIP PRESS CONFERENCE, DAINES SLAMS BIDEN ADMINISTRATION FOR DIVERTING AIR MARSHALS TO SOUTHERN BORDER

Press Release

"Well yesterday, I was at my home airport getting ready to get on a plane to head back to Washington, D.C. By the way, Montana is beautiful, and as I was spending a little time before I got on the plane, I was chatting with a member of Montana law enforcement who works there at the airport. He told me they had a recent situation where they had a violent person with a criminal background that needed to get on a plane to fly and they had requested an air marshal that could shadow this potentially violent passenger before they got on the plane.

Well, guess what? He told me -- and he's had a multi -decade career in law enforcement in Montana Highway Patrol, now working at the airport -- he said there were no air marshals available, because they've been deployed to the southern border to process illegals coming into the country. Today, I'm sending a letter to Secretary Mayorkas demanding answers. It's not the only time that the Biden administration in this unprecedented border crisis, has pulled resources from where they're needed. Look at what just happened last week at the Tucson sector of the border patrol. They said they can't post information on social media now because and I quote "all available personnel is needed to address the unprecedented flow of migrants.'

We have folks coming across the border who on the FBI's terror watch list and others who are coming from countries that the State Department has listed as state sponsors of terror. But diverting personnel, air marshals, from the jobs they were trained to do and to protect us, is not fixing the problem. It's making it worse.

We need policy changes as part of this supplemental that we're debating right now on the United States Senate floor. Walls work. We need to complete President Trump's wall, we need to tighten asylum standards and rein in DHS's parole power."

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