Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) claims Democrats are now “living in the backlash” after ignoring his warnings about securing the southern border before President Donald Trump was elected.“The Democrats were saying, ‘Oh no, it’s all good. Everything’s OK.’ And now more and more, some of those mayors, like [Eric] Adams and others, start to say, ‘We need help. What’s going on? This is out of control,’” Fetterman told Dasha Burns on Politico’s “The Conversation.” “We’re going to burn for that, because that’s not sustainable,” he said.Fetterman said he told Democrats “the border is a disaster” more than two years ago.“If you start looking at the numbers showing up, the encounters, that’s almost 300,000 a month,” seemingly referring to December 2023 government data that displayed an all-time monthly high.“And even if you are just only [concerned] about the welfare of the migrants, as I am, how can you possibly give them the American dream when it’s 300,000 a month?” Fetterman said. “So for me, this is part of the backlash.”Fetterman was the only Senate Democrat to vote on advancing a full-year funding package for the Department of Homeland Security this week, breaking from his party in the wake of federal operations that have killed U.S citizens and left other people seriously injured.Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday that “the status quo cannot continue.” However, Fetterman defended his vote in a post on X, claiming “shutting DHS down has zero impact and zero changes for ICE,” and “as a Democrat, I can’t vote to shut down critical parts of our government.” Shutting DHS down has zero impact and zero changes for ICE. ICE already has $75B in funding from the BBB that I did not vote for.But it will hit FEMA, Coast Guard, TSA and our Cybersecurity Agency.As a Democrat, I can’t vote to shut down critical parts of our government. pic.twitter.com/QYasx0LwCo— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) February 12, 2026“For me, it’s always like, secure our border. You know, every nation must do those things,” he told Burns. “And why can’t we agree we have to round up every single criminal and deport them, send them back?”He went on to call himself “a very pro-immigration Democrat.”“My views have never changed. My family was the product of immigration, and I haven’t changed my views on anything,” Fetterman said.Close