{"id":599402,"date":"2021-07-21T16:35:27","date_gmt":"2021-07-21T20:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=599402"},"modified":"2021-07-21T16:35:28","modified_gmt":"2021-07-21T20:35:28","slug":"is-that-a-hard-question-agriculture-secretary-dodges-when-lindsey-graham-asks-whether-southern-border-is-secure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/is-that-a-hard-question-agriculture-secretary-dodges-when-lindsey-graham-asks-whether-southern-border-is-secure\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Is That A Hard Question?\u2019: Agriculture Secretary Dodges When Lindsey Graham Asks Whether Southern Border Is Secure"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fis-that-a-hard-question-agriculture-secretary-dodges-when-lindsey-graham-asks-whether-southern-border-is-secure%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=599402&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Screen-Shot-2021-07-21-at-1.39.26-PM-e1626895180360.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack appeared reluctant to answer Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham\u2019s repeated questions about border security.<\/p>\n<p>Graham pressed Vilsack several times during a Wednesday hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, asking about the record number of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbp.gov\/newsroom\/national-media-release\/cbp-announces-june-2021-operational-update\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">apprehensions<\/a> in recent months and how President Joe Biden\u2019s policies were impacting the flow of illegal immigration.<strong> <a class=\"text-black\" href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/06\/20\/lindsey-graham-democrats-threatening-change-rules-cant-win-votes\/\">(RELATED: \u2018I\u2019m Not Going To Be Extorted\u2019: Lindsey Graham Blasts Democrats For Threatening To Change The Rules If They Can\u2019t Win Votes)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>WATCH:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIs the southern border secure?\u201d Graham cut straight to the chase after thanking Vilsack for coming.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s fair to say, Senator, that there are ways in which we can improve \u2014\u201d Vilsack replied, but Graham quickly cut him off.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s not the question,\u201d he said, asking again, \u201cIs it secured? If you can\u2019t figure this out, is that a hard question?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt can be a hard question,\u201d Vilsack protested.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not today,\u201d Graham persisted, arguing that there were already record numbers flooding the border and asking whether legalizing immigrants without first securing the border would only exacerbate the problem. \u201cWill it be a run on the border?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t believe so,\u201d Vilsack answered.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t believe so? You don\u2019t believe that if we give legal status to hundreds of thousands of people without first securing the border there won\u2019t be a rush on the border,\u201d Graham pushed back.<\/p>\n<p>Vilsack argued that many of those who would be legalized were migrant workers who had already been in the country for some length of time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo you understand pull factors?\u201d Graham asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI understand the nature of this workforce,\u201d Vilsack replied.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo you understand that if you give legal status to one person without first securing the border, you\u2019re going to have a run on the border ten times worse tha we have \u2014 you don\u2019t believe that?\u201d Graham tried a different tack.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t believe so. The reason I don\u2019t is because I think the primary \u2014\u201d Vilsack tried to push back, but Graham interrupted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just think that\u2019s ludicrous. I\u2019ve been involved in every immigration bill there has been and we always secured the border first because of this very reason. You don\u2019t give amnesty and hope people won\u2019t keep coming. You secure the border, then you provide legal status. We\u2019re doing it ass backwards,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Graham went on to argue that there needed to be hearings about what was going on at the border before there were any further hearings on granting legal status to anyone.<\/p>\n<p>He wrapped up his line of questioning by asking whether Vilsack believed that the Biden administration\u2019s wholesale approach to overturning former President Donald Trump\u2019s border policies was impacting the record numbers at the border.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s a complicated issue,\u201d Vilsack said again, prompting Graham to respond, \u201cNo, it\u2019s not, it\u2019s really simple.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vilsack argued that <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/06\/10\/consumer-price-index-inflation-joe-biden-janet-yellen\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">economic hardships<\/a>, food shortages and the pandemic had driven the record-breaking surge in migrants coming to the border, but Graham continued to press the idea that dramatic changes in <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/04\/27\/biden-94-immigration-orders-first-100-days\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">policy<\/a> may have been at least partly responsible.<\/p>\n<p>Graham\u2019s final question centered once again on pull factors and whether or not Vilsack had discussed them with Customs and Border Patrol agents who were on the ground \u2014 and he said that he had not done so since he served under former President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGo talk to them and you\u2019ll find out how wrong you are if you talk to them,\u201d Graham concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack appeared reluctant to answer Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham\u2019s repeated questions about border security.Graham pressed Vilsack several times during a Wednesday hearing before the Senate &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-599402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}