America is 'full,' Lindsey Graham says

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday the U.S. is "full" in saying a solution is desperately needed for the surge of migrants at the Southern border.

"When you come to our border, we say: I'm sorry, we're full," the South Carolina Republican said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

The surge of migrants arriving at the southern border and claiming asylum has left a record number of them in legal limbo as they wait for their cases to be resolved.

Graham said the best solution is to ship large numbers of migrants back to where they came, something he said would discourage others from attempting to enter the country: "1.7 million people are ready to be deported. Let’s deport them before we let new people in.”

He also said President Joe Biden should utilize the Title 42 authority that was used during the Covid years to expedite the removal of undocumented immigrants. "It's not complicated," Graham said, twice in a row.

Title 42 authority came from a World War II-era public health law. It allowed for the expulsion of migrants as a matter of public safety, a way to temporarily override legal protections for those seeking asylum. The policy ended in May.

"This is a predictable outcome of bad policy choices made right after Biden became president," Graham said of the current situation.

Efforts in Washington in recent weeks to approve supplemental aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan have floundered because of an inability of Democrats and Republicans to agree on ways to change the immigration system. Graham, a staunch supporter of international aid for America's allies, said doing something about immigration remains the priority.

"I cannot come back to South Carolina, and talk about giving aid to Ukraine and Israel if the border is still broken," Graham said.

Following Graham on the CBS show, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston both also saw surging immigration as a crisis, but directed their ire toward Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican who has been shipping migrants to their cities and others governed by Democrats without coordinating basic logistics with officials in their communities.

"What we have attempted to do is to create structure and some coordination around this humanitarian crisis," Johnson said of the situation in Chicago, adding that Abbott "is determined to continue to sow seeds of chaos."

Denver's mayor concurred.

"What we don't want is people arriving at 2 in the morning at a city and county building with women and children outside in 10-degree weather and no support," Johnston told host Margaret Brennan. "And so, we want buses here to do what every other bus does, which is land at a bus station and a bus stop at hours when we can have staff there to receive them and to direct them toward services."

He added: "We just want it to be coordinated, and in a humanitarian way."

During his interview, Graham made it clear that he believes that former President Donald Trump, if returned to the White House, would go all-in on the type of measures he supports.

"When Trump gets to be president, if he does, if you're here illegally you're going to be deported," he told Brennan. "There's going to be mass deportation under Donald Trump."

Graham's statement about the United States being "full" echoed a tweet from Trump in April 2019 that drew a lot of attention at the time.

"Mexico must apprehend all illegals," Trump tweeted, "and not let them make the long march up to the United States, or we will have no other choice than to Close the Border and/or institute Tariffs. Our Country is FULL!"