Biden administration doesn’t ‘want to turn ANYONE away’ at the border: Republican Senator Eric Schmitt says ‘nine out of 10 asylum claims are bogus’ in interview with Daily Mail laying out his predictions for next year

Senator Eric Schmitt predicted that Congress will never meet on a foreign aid and immigration package because President Biden is “not at all interested in securing our southern border.”

“Joe Biden owns this. His party wants this,” the Missouri senator said in an interview with DailyMail.com, expressing skepticism that he could even vote for such a package.

“I'm skeptical about any kind of language change we can achieve, even if it is better than what we have now, it will be enforced by a government that simply doesn't believe in the rule of law.”

Ahead of his first year in Congress this year, Schmitt led the lawsuit against the Biden administration's repeal of Title 42 and Remain in Mexico.

Senator Eric Schmitt predicted that Congress will never meet on a foreign aid and immigration package because President Biden is 'not at all interested in securing our southern border'

“We had to go to court again and again to force the administration to actually comply with the court orders and tell them you have to keep doing this. So it's just not in their DNA at this point,” he continued. “They don't want to turn anyone away.”

In fiscal year 2023, border agents apprehended migrants at the southwest border nearly 2.5 million times — a new record. The number of migrants crossing the border is on track to reach a new monthly record in December.

Reflecting on his first year in Washington, Schmitt said he was “honored” to get the job but was frustrated by the way Capitol Hill is operating.

“We don't spend time debating some of the most important issues of our time,” Schmitt said.

'I think it leads to a lot of frustration. I think this deadline policy, which focuses more on deadlines rather than dollars, leads to a lot of frustration.”

After weeks of back-and-forth over a package that would also include aid to Israel and Ukraine and border restrictions, the Senate left last week with no bill in sight.

When lawmakers return, they will have just a few more legislative days to hammer out a spending plan for the 2024 fiscal year. The Senate has passed just three of 12 appropriations bills — with spending deadlines fast approaching on January 19 and February 2.

Migrants seeking asylum await processing by U.S. Border Patrol after crossing the Rio Grande River from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on December 28.

Last year, only 21 bills passed both houses and became law.

“We don't have a lot of resources to actually move the legislation to the floor. There's just not a lot happening in the Senate, and that's really at the feet of Chuck Schumer,” Schmitt continued, referring to the Democratic majority leader.

In 2024, Schmitt said he would instead focus on his work on the Armed Services and Commerce, Science and Transportation committees.

“We cannot lose the space race to China,” the senator said.

'We need a lot of rare earth metals, they are talking about mining asteroids in space. So there will be a lot of things happening on that front in the next decade that will determine our place in the world.”