Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) gave a fiery speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday in which he excoriated the Biden administration’s immigration policies. The lawmaker, who is known for his hawkish stance on legal and illegal immigration, did not hold back, pointing out the inherent flaws in the president’s sweeping open borders agenda.

“They want to give amnesty to 15 to 20 million illegal aliens with no strings attached – with voting rights,” he said, referencing Biden’s plan to grant a pathway to citizenship for individuals residing in the U.S. illegally.

Cotton continued: “They have halted deportations for all illegal aliens – murderers, rapists, terrorists, MS-13 gang members are not being deported. They stopped building the wall on our border and they put up a wall around … the United States Capitol.”

The lawmaker then brought up the part of Biden’s agenda that would involve bringing illegals who were turned away from the border into the country. “And right now as we speak they are literally tracking down illegal aliens in Mexico who Donald Trump turned away to invite them to come back. That’s not catch and release, that’s recruit and release,” he argued.

President Biden’s immigration agenda elicited no small level of criticism from the right and moderates on the left. Many have complained that the plan is far too radical especially when it comes to granting citizenship to illegal aliens without including any real provisions for decreasing continued illegal immigration.

The Washington Examiner reported that critics are insisting that such a comprehensive plan would  threaten “the livelihood and safety of border states.”

Heritage Action Executive Director Jessica Anderson said: “This latest move would only further harm American workers already struggling from our health and economic national crises caused by the ongoing pandemic and our government’s response. This new immigration bill will damage America’s safety, weaken our economy, and endanger our freedoms.”

Anderson also stated that Biden’s plan could lead to giving about 20 million immigrants a path to citizenship.

The Examiner noted, “Biden’s open-door plan has already sparked a new surge of 3,500 illegal immigrants to the border daily, according to immigration officials.”

Former Trump adviser Stephen Miller criticized the potential impact of the Biden administration’s immigration plan, pointing out that it would motivate millions of illegals to “cut in line” ahead of those who entered the country legally. He indicated that the new changes could damage the morale of agents working with Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“Could you imagine a more demoralizing thing? The message that it sends to border agents and ICE officers is that ‘you don’t matter. Your job doesn’t matter. Your life’s work doesn’t matter. Your oath doesn’t matter. None of it matters. It’s all make believe. It’s all pretend.’ It’s an extraordinarily insidious thing,” he said in an interview with Secrets.

Biden’s open borders efforts took a massive hit recently when a federal judge banned the administration from instituting a 100-day moratorium on deportations. Previously, the official placed a temporary hold on the measure, but now, the attempt to safeguard illegal aliens has been curtailed indefinitely. (See: Federal Judge Plunges Dagger Into Democrats’ Open Borders Agenda And Twists It Slowly)

Despite the setback, the president will still pursue this initiative. The fact that Democrats control both chambers of Congress might make it appear that he won’t have many challenges in getting his agenda implemented. But the moderate faction of the party might not allow him to succeed in getting everything the progressive wing wants. Still, this is yet another reason why it is important for the GOP to take Congress back during the midterm elections. Otherwise, Biden’s agenda might come to fruition.