Exclusive — Tom Cotton: ‘Pretty Confident’ GOP Has Votes ‘to Stop’ Biden Amnesty Plan in Senate

ORLANDO, Florida — Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) told Breitbart News that he is confident Senate Republicans have the votes to stop President Joe Biden from passing an amnesty for the millions of illegal aliens in America in the U.S. Senate.

In an exclusive interview at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) hosted by the American Conservative Union (ACU), Cotton said Biden’s amnesty plan will, in an all likelihood, not pass the U.S. Senate because it will not get the 60 votes to overcome the filibuster threshold. Asked in the interview if Biden’s plan would pass Congress, Cotton replied “not if I have anything to do with it.”

“I can tell you, in my eight years in the Congress, two in the House when I helped stop the terrible Gang of Eight bill in 2013 and then six years in the Senate, I can tell you Senate Republicans have gotten much tougher on the border, much stronger on an immigration system that works for working Americans — not just for illegal aliens and foreigners,” Cotton said. “So I’m pretty confident that we’ve got the votes to stop it in the Senate.”

To get past the filibuster, Biden’s proposed amnesty would need 60 votes in the Senate. With a 50-50 split in the Senate between Republicans and Democrats, that means 10 Republicans would need to support an amnesty plan. Cotton believes Democrats will not get anywhere near that number, which means Biden’s plans for an amnesty are dead on arrival in Congress. At this stage, zero Republicans have signaled support for any of Biden’s amnesty agenda.

Despite the likely failure of Democrats and the Biden administration on a congressionally-approved amnesty, Cotton said Biden’s executive action on immigration is particularly dangerous to the American people.

“However, we can’t take our eye off the ball on what Joe Biden is doing though executive action rolling back a lot of Donald Trump’s very common sense America First policies,” Cotton said. “Like today, literally, our government is seeking out illegal aliens in Mexico that Donald Trump turned away and inviting them to come back to the border. If that’s not catch and release, that’s like recruit and release.”

Cotton also ripped Biden for releasing migrants into the country without testing them for coronavirus and warned this surge at the border is only going to get worse as the weather warms up in Texas.

“You have to have a coronavirus test to fly into the country but not to cross at our border,” Cotton said. “But look at what we also have happening at our border. This is February. We just had a massive winter storm all the way down to the Texas border last week and yet you have thousands of migrants showing up at our border in the dead of winter. What do they think that’s going to be like in 60 days when it’s warm in Texas? I mean this is going to be an unprecedented migrant crisis if Joe Biden and the Democrats don’t say loudly and clearly to the entire world you cannot come to our border and expect to get in. You have to follow our laws, and you have to come here the right way.”