West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin pushed back against CNN host Jake Tapper Sunday to defend his stance on calling for tighter border policies, stating that the United States is “over capacity.”

Manchin appeared on “The State of The Union” to discuss the current southern border security legislation that bipartisan senators are working to push through after Congress stated that they would not pass any new foreign aid to Ukraine unless the U.S. border was also handled within the bill. While Tapper had brought up the issue of progressive Democrats not agreeing with stricter border policies, the West Virginia senator defended his position emphasizing that the U.S. needs to get “control” of the issue. (RELATED: Manchin Says He’ll ‘Absolutely’ Consider Running For President In 2024)

 

“And I think it’s dangerous to our country what’s happening right now. And I think the majority of people who are sensible, reasonable, and responsible understand that to be so. So we’re going to basically work as the United States of America – working together and not working as a political tool and basically weaponizing it and blaming somebody else for not being perfect,” Manchin stated.  

“The good would be stopping the flow of people coming to our country for the wrong reasons or people coming more than what we can handle. Jake, every one of us have gone to a sporting event, or to a concert event or some other activity,” Manchin continued. “We are over capacity right now. And we have to control this.”

However, Tapper questioned the West Virginia senator, highlighting his use of the word “dangerous” when describing the migrant crisis stating that “most of the people” coming into the U.S. “do not pose a danger” to Americans. Manchin then pushed back against the CNN host stating that the U.S. has been “letting people come in” without adjudicating everyone, noting that the amount of people passing through the border far exceeds the norm. (RELATED: ‘Threats’: Cuomo Explains Why Trump Admin ‘Did A Better Job’ Than Biden At Handling Cartels)

“When you say it’s dangerous – what do you mean by dangerous? I mean, most of the people coming to this country do not pose a danger to Americans,” Tapper stated.

“Jake, we’re letting people come in and not adjudicating them through the parole system that you said and also basically just not having the means and having that much personnel to basically go through why you came, how you came, the purpose of you’re coming – this and that,” Manchin stated. 

“We’re going to basically say ‘okay, you don’t seem to be a threat, maybe.’ They don’t know because they’re not doing, I think, proper screening. When you have 10 and 12,000 people coming a day, and you’re only able to basically really adjudicate maybe 500. No more than 1,000 a day, but 500 normally – Jake, you’re overrun. And you just turn them loose and basically disperse them within and says ‘we’ll get to you later.’ There can be very dangerous people coming for whatever nefarious reasons they’re coming for.” 

“I don’t want to take that chance. I don’t think we should take that chance. And I think that our negotiators right now from our Republican and Democrat negotiators who are really diligent doing a great job, and then basically with the White House involved committed to getting this border under control,” Manchin stated.

Bipartisan senators have been working to change the nation’s asylum and border security laws in an attempt to agree on the framework of a deal that can then be pushed back to the House, CBS News reported. The push from lawmakers came after the White House reportedly signaled that it was willing to accept new terms regarding asylum and detention and deportation efforts following a firm stance from House Republicans on needing to address the issue, the outlet reported.

The southern border has hit record numbers of illegal immigrants passing through, with over 188,000 illegal migrants encountered in October alone, according to data from the U.S Customs and Border Protection. Mexican authorities recently found ten improvised explosive devices on a man additionally carrying an AK-47 rifle who was arrested by a Border Patrol agent near the Tuscan, Arizona border.