Rep. Robert Garcia slammed former US President Donald Trump and the House GOP on Tuesday during a Judiciary Committee hearing on the crisis at the southern border.
Garcia lit into the Republicans for attempting to scuttle a bipartisan deal from the U.S. Senate at the behest of Trump before the deal had even been finalized. While blasting the GOP for refusing to consider actual policy reforms to strengthen the border, Garcia aimed past proposals from Trump.
“I want to remind the public that Donald Trump and House Republicans also have their own ideas for the border,” the California Democrat began with a visual aid behind him.
“So let’s review the majority’s border ideas that they’ve actually presented. Here they are. Donald Trump actually has said that he wants to build alligator moats along the border,” Garcia said pointing to the graphic behind him, adding:
“That’s one of his incredible ideas. Another idea that Donald Trump has promoted, is he wants to electrify the border fence and maybe even put some spikes on the border. That’s another Donald Trump and MAGA majority border idea. Another idea, which I’m not sure how well it would go, is he wants to actually bomb northern Mexico with missiles. That’s another Trump idea. And finally, I think one of the ones that I think is the most grotesque is the suggestion that instead, we should maybe just shoot migrants in the legs as they cross the border.
“So once again, the Donald Trump and MAGA plan is alligator moats, bombing northern Mexico, shooting migrants in the legs, electrifying the fence, and putting spikes on them. That is the Donald Trump border plan. And so again, we are here today with these horrific ideas being presented constantly by the former president.
“This is all about trying to get Donald Trump reelected. Donald Trump himself is saying he wants no solutions this year out of the Congress. And Secretary Mayorkas and President Biden continue to offer solutions every day and are ready to actually talk about real immigration and border solutions in this country,” Garcia concluded.
The ideas from Trump that Garcia referenced were widely reported in 2019 as former and current Trump White House aides began to recall them to the media. The New York Times reported in October of 2019:
Privately, the president had often talked about fortifying a border wall with a water-filled trench, stocked with snakes or alligators, prompting aides to seek a cost estimate. He wanted the wall electrified, with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh.
After publicly suggesting that soldiers shoot migrants if they threw rocks, the president backed off when his staff told him that was illegal. But later in a meeting, aides recalled, he suggested that they shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down. That’s not allowed either, they told him.
