By Charles Boothe, Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD, W.Va. — As the crisis at the southern border continues, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said it may be time to revisit 2013 bipartisan legislation that he championed which could make the border more secure and manageable.
“We had 68 Democrats and Republicans who voted for it in the Senate and we sent it over to the House,” Manchin said during a virtual press briefing last week of the 2013 bill. But the bill was then killed in the House.
“When that bill got killed and never saw the light of day in the House, that was when the Tea Party was coming into power and glory, the hardcore Republicans,” he said. “They had just defeated Eric Cantor in Richmond with a Tea Party person and they attacked Cantor because he supported the immigration overhaul.”
The $42 billion bill included 900 miles of strategically placed border wall and enhanced security at ports of entry. It also included a pathway forward for people who were here illegally…
