Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) criticized his own party for failing to “handle the border appropriately” and said that thousands of illegal aliens allowed in under the Biden administration was “unacceptable.”
During a discussion with Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) at the Senate Project, which was co-hosted by the Edward M. Kennedy Institute and the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation, Fetterman cast support behind President Donald Trump’s One, Big, Beautiful Bill and the “roughly $150 billion” that would be go towards securing the United States southern border, focusing on illegal immigration, the Hill reported.
“If I had to find something in that, the Big, Beautiful Bill, that I could support that, that’s a mistake that our party made and that’s the border,” Fetterman told Fox News host Shannon Bream, adding that he “absolutely” supports making investments to make the southern border secure.
“I thought the border was really important, and our party did not handle the border appropriately,” Fetterman added. “Look at the numbers, 267,000, 300,000 people showing up at our border, and we can all agree that’s roughly the size of Pittsburgh. Now that’s unacceptable and that’s [a] national security issue and that’s chaos.”
🚨🚨 .@JohnFetterman bashed his own party over its mishandling of the border, calling it "unacceptable" and "chaos."
— Nicole Silverio (@NicoleMSilverio) June 2, 2025
"And our party did not handle the border appropriately. Look at the numbers, 260,000 [or] 300,000 people showing up at our border and we can all agree that's… pic.twitter.com/ZSr2Sjn2FM
“So, a secure border, being very pro-immigration as I am as a Democrat, it’s like trying to think two things must be true and sometimes that’s put me at the odds of my party and my base to assume that I’ve changed my values — and that’s never changed. That’s never changed,” Fetterman continued. “Two things must be true because we can’t pretend that we can take care of, if there’s 300,000 people showing up every month, not once a year, every month.”
Fetterman’s criticism of the Democratic Party’s handling of the southern border comes as he has previously stated during a CNN interview in January 2024, that while he wants “to provide the American Dream for any migrant,” it is hard to do that when there are “300,000 people showing up encountered at” the southern border.
