Story highlights
Sen. Lindsey Graham calls Donald Trump's proposals "gibberish"
Graham has long advocated for comprehensive immigration reform
(CNN) —
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina slammed Donald Trump’s immigration plan as “gibberish” and “nonsensical” and said it would “kill the Republican Party.”
Graham, a GOP presidential candidate who has frequently sparred with Trump, said the billionaire’s plan to deport all undocumented immigrants and force Mexico to pay for a border prove that Trump is “shallow” and “hasn’t spent any time looking at how this system works and what’s practical.”
“I don’t think there’s 10 votes in the United States Senate for this plan,” Graham told reporters Monday in Iowa. “I promise you no Democrat’s going to vote for this, I certainly wouldn’t vote for it. You’re not going to get 11 million people out of this country. That’s just not practical, that’s going to kill the Republican Party. It’s self-deportation on steroids.”
Graham was a member of a group of bipartisan senators who crafted a compromise immigration plan that passed in the U.S. Senate in 2013 but was stalled by the GOP-led House. He has long advocated for comprehensive immigration reform.
RELATED: Trump outlines immigration specifics
Trump on Sunday released a policy paper detailing for the first time how he would address illegal immigration in the United States, pledging to boost border security and also curtail legal immigration into the United States. Trump said this weekend on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that all undocumented immigrants “have to go.”
One of Trump’s proposals didn’t draw a knee-jerk rejection from Graham, however – the plan to end birthright citizenship.
Graham, who has previously called birthright citizenship a “mistake,” said Monday that he would support that idea because it is “a magnet” that attracts people to move to the U.S. illegally.
First, though, Graham said the U.S. would need to “reform the current system.”
Graham also slammed Trump’s plan to defeat ISIS, which includes bombing some Iraqi oil fields and seizing control of others to pay for services in the U.S.
Photos: Lindsey Graham's political career
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Click through to see highlights from U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham's political career:
Photos: Lindsey Graham's political career
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Graham; Sir Elton John, center; and filmmaker and John's husband, David Furnish, pose after testimony at a U.S. Senate hearing on the global fight against AIDS on May 6, 2015. Graham and Democratic Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont hosted John as part of their bipartisan effort to combat HIV infection.
Photos: Lindsey Graham's political career
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Graham rushes to the Senate chamber to vote on an attempt to override U.S. President Barack Obama's veto of the Keystone XL Pipeline legislation March 4, 2015. Graham was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002 and was re-elected in 2008 and 2014.
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Graham listens to testimony during a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting on national security strategy on January 27, 2015. According to his website, Graham continues to serve his country in the U.S. Air Force Reserves as a senior individual mobilization augmentee to the judge advocate general.
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Graham arrives for a closed briefing of the Armed Services Committee on July 30, 2014. Before serving in the Senate, Graham was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994.
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Graham talks to U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, before a news conference on Capitol Hill on July 24, 2014.
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Graham and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, right, listen as President Barack Obama delivers the State of the Union address on January 28, 2014. Graham was in the U.S. Air Force and logged six-and-a-half years of service on active duty as an Air Force lawyer.
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Graham holds a news conference on Benghazi, Libya, at the U.S. Capitol on October 30, 2013. From left, he is flanked by Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona; Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah; and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. Graham has been an outspoken critic of how the Obama administration has handled the September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic, in which four U.S. citizens died.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, meets with U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, and Graham on June 30, 2013, in Jerusalem.
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McCain, left, and Graham speak during a news conference about Benghazi on February 14, 2013, on Capitol Hill.
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Graham talks with reporters before heading into the Senate Republican Caucus policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol May 8, 2012.
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Graham speaks to reporters after a news conference about his Social Security reform plan at the U.S. Capitol on April 13, 2011.
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Graham, left, and McCain call on participants during a health care town hall meeting on September 14, 2009 at the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. According to his website, Graham is a native South Carolinian and grew up in a blue collar family in the small town of Central, where his parents ran a restaurant and pool hall.
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U.S. President George W. Bush, left, stands with Graham on the steps of Air Force One at the airport in Greenville, South Carolina, in March 2002.
Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called that proposal foolish and said it shows Trump “has no idea what the world is actually like.”
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, speaking in Charleston, South Carolina, on Monday, said he appreciates that Trump has an immigration plan, but that the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S. need to be dealt with in a way that’s “realistic.”
He also said the U.S. needs “to have border security done in a way to lessen the number of people who are crossing the border.”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told CNN earlier Monday that he supported building a wall in select, urban areas along the border, but said he had no expectation that Mexico would pay for it.
CNN’s Elizabeth Landers contributed to this report
