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The Democratic and Republican nominees for Pennsylvania's Senate seat being contested in 2024 recognize voters are concerned about immigration.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, expressed disappointment that this spring's bipartisan border security bill was voted down in the Senate.
"That was a terrible loss, not just for the border-specific policies as it relates to investing in screening technology at the border so that we can find fentanyl in vehicles because of that high-tech equipment," he said. "Most of the fentanyl is being transported through ports of entry in vehicles and unfortunately by American citizens trying to smuggle it into the country and make money."
"Currently we stop about 1.1 billion doses at the border, but that's not nearly enough," Casey said of stopping fentanyl.
He also noted the legislation would revised asylum policies, which he says would've reduced the number of people crossing the border to claim asylum.
"The best way to secure the border or at least begin to secure the border, is to pass this bipartisan legislation that the border patrol union supported -- and last time I checked the border patrol union hasn't endorsed any Democrats," Casey said, describing the bill as "conservative" and "tough."
David McCormick, the combat veteran who won the Republican nomination in the 2024 primary, faults the Biden administration and his supporters in the Senate -- including Casey -- for both permissiveness toward border crossings and misrepresentation about the nature and severity of the problem.
"What's really happened here is that under President Biden, with Senator Casey's support every step of the way, we took a dramatically different approach to immigration," McCormick said. "Casey voted for stopping the wall, he voted against additional funding for border patrol, he voted against a fentanyl initiative which would've helped address this horrible scourge."
McCormick said he has visited the border more often the past two years than either Casey or Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
"The system has been so overwhelmed under the policies of Biden, Harris and Casey, we've had this enormous onslaught," he said. "I literally went there in the middle of the night with the border patrol. I saw 50 people walk right across the border in front of me in Yuma, Arizona."
McCormick praised the policies the Trump administration, specifically "remain-in-Mexico," the policy under which immigrants seeking asylum are not permitted to wait within the U.S. and also criticized both the substance of the legislation Casey supports, describing it as "not a border security law, it was a law to expedite asylum," and the timing of Casey's support.
"He voted for this in an election year after the Democrats didn't do anything on the border," McCormick said.