If a “border security” bill that still allows for the entry of 5,000 illegals a day is the best deal Republicans can get, “we need a whole new batch of Republicans,” says Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley.

Leaked details of a supposed border deal between Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell include allowing 5,000 illegals in a day – or 1.8 million a year – before any action is taken to stem the flow.

Other provisions, as reported on by The Daily Caller, include:

• amnesty for a “documented Dreamer” class of some 250,000
• keeping heretofore unauthorized mass immigrant parole programs in place that act as unofficial visas
• quicker work permits for illegals who are likely committing asylum fraud
• expanding free benefits for illegals, such as legal services
• billions of dollars to the nongovernmental organizations that have been profiting off the border crisis “by transporting, lodging and helping illegal aliens enter the country”

The Heartlander asked Hawley in an exclusive interview Thursday why Republicans would agree to legalize any amount of illegal entry into the country.

“Oh, it’s not acceptable. It’s a joke,” Hawley said. “I mean, it’s an absolute joke. And we’re supposed to believe this is the best deal Republicans can get? I mean, if that’s true, we need a whole new batch of Republicans.  

“This is just outrageous: 5,000 people illegally a day before we can close the border. The border ought to be closed now. We should have kept Title 42 in place, which closed the border. This isn’t hard. We know how to do this. Trump had done it. You close the border. You say to people seeking asylum, ‘Hey, you want to apply for asylum? That’s fine. But you’ve got to apply and then go to Mexico and wait. You can’t just come into our country and then never show up again for a court hearing.’ 

“But Biden wants the border open. And I, for one, I’m not going to vote to help him do it. I’m not going to vote to bail him out and give him more money for his open-border policies. No way. He is on the hook here. He needs to enforce the law, and we need a new president.”

A new Congressional Budget Office report puts the border crisis in perspective for Missourians, Hawley notes: Known “gotaways” at the southern border last fiscal year exceeded the combined populations of St. Louis and Kansas City.

“These are people that Border Patrol had some contact with and then they got away and they lost contact with them,” Hawley explains. “So, that doesn’t count the number that they never apprehended at all. So, we’re talking about millions of people who are coming over this border. Millions. It’s more than we’ve ever seen in American history.”

The effect on Missouri alone is staggering, the senator argues. Indeed, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey tells The Heartlander the state saw 1,100 reported incidents of human trafficking in a single year – making Missouri the fourth-worst state for human trafficking – as well as more than 1,500 fentanyl overdose deaths, including 43 children.

Adds Hawley:

“We’re talking about drugs pouring into the state of Missouri, into every single school in our state, into every single neighborhood in our state – rural, urban, north, south, east, west, doesn’t matter. It’s everywhere, coming across the southern border. And Joe Biden is doing nothing about it. In fact, he’s the reason we have the crisis. Trump had the border closed. Biden opened the border, he rolled out the red carpet to the cartels. And here we are.”

How can the country absorb, much less assimilate, the populations of Kansas City and St. Louis in the span of just a year?

“You can’t. There’s no absorbing,” Hawley says. “You want to know why wages are flat? This is why they’re flat. And the big multinational corporations, by the way, they love this. They love it. They love the idea that you’re going to get all of this cheap labor, illegal labor, no less, into the country. 

“That means that American workers can’t get paid. That means that these companies go around, they say, ‘All right, hey, there’s an American worker who wants a job, but I got to pay that person a good wage – or I can go over here to this illegal immigrant and I can pay them cut-rate.’ Well, what are they going to do? They’re going to pay the illegal immigrant.  

“And am I speculating? I’m not speculating. We have all of these reports about companies like Tyson Foods that have illegal immigrants, including children, working at their factories. I mean, this is outrageous. This is what’s happening.

“So, workers are getting the shaft. Parents, their kids are being exposed to drugs because of what’s happening across the southern border. We are absolutely overrun. The cartels are in control. And Joe Biden is just sitting there, because this is what he wants. He wants the border open, because it’s part of his left-wing religion. And it’s out of control.”

So, why make any border deal at all? Why not just insist the border be secured with the enforcement of existing laws?

“I think that’s the right outcome,” Hawley responds. “I mean, there’s no reason to make a bad deal for sure. Why would we ever make a deal that actually makes the problem worse? I just keep hearing about this border deal. And again, it’s 50,000 more green cards every year – 50,000! – 5,000 illegal immigrants over the border every day.

“That makes the problem worse, not better. There’s no way I’m voting for that.”