WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Finance committees, released the following statement in response to President Trump’s remarks on border security.

“Let’s reopen the government and then have a debate about the president’s ideas on border security and the many proposals that have circulated through Congress and even passed either the House or Senate. We all want secure borders; we all want protections for the Dreamers and TPS recipients; we all want comprehensive immigration reform; but government must be reopened first. Unfortunately, in a speech called ‘a plan to reopen the government,’ we heard very little about the urgency of reopening the government. There are 800,000 federal employees and millions of service contractors who deserve to be on the job and paid for their hard work. The American people deserve to have their government fully functioning again.”

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