This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A top Republican in the U.S. Senate is warning the congressional push for tax cuts could be endangering U.S. border security, and therefore the lives of American citizens.

"I'm very worried," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, on "Sunday Morning Futures" with Maria Bartiromo on the Fox News Channel.

"I'm very worried that if we don't put border first and get it done, it's going to be to a nightmare for our national security. We've got millions of illegal immigrants that President Trump has promised to deport, and he should. Why are we doing mass deportation? Because we had mass illegal immigration," he continued.

"Laken Riley's murderer was released because there was no bed space to hold him, and he was paroled, and he raped and killed the girl. Right now, we have 41,000 beds. Under the Trump plan, we're going to go to 150,000 beds.

"We're going to double the number of ICE agents to find people and kick 'em out. We're gonna finish the wall, and put technology on the border to shut it down. That costs $100 billion. I'm willing to offset the $100 billion with cuts in other places, but there's no way in hell Democrats are going to give us $100 billion for mass deportation.

"Every day we delay is a dangerous day for America. 3,000 Americans died from fentanyl poisoning every two weeks. I've never seen so many threats to our nation as I do now.

"It started with Afghanistan. ISIS is on the move. They're coming here. Last year we found eight people from Tajikistan that were affiliated with ISIS. I wrote a letter to [Sen. Chuck] Schumer saying let's have a hearing about ISIS-K in Afghanistan. He blew me off for an entire year. Now he wants a hearing about New Orleans.

"The threats to our nation are large. I want the tax cuts. $4.7 trillion, they will ruin the economy if they expire at the the end of the year. I will try to be a team player here, but I want to tell the American people from my point of view, the number one job is to secure the nation for the federal government.

"Our border is broken. I wanted it fixed by February the 17th. To the tax-cut wing of the party, I am with you, but if you hold border security hostage to get tax cuts, you're playing Russian roulette with our national security."

"So count me in for cutting taxes, but my purpose on this show today so the warn Americans that that this broken border is a national security nightmare. Donald Trump has a plan to fix it. It costs $100 billion. If we can get him the money, that's all he needs to fix it for four years. No Democrat is going to help us, folks. If you think they're going to help us, you shouldn't be allowed to drive."

Graham also is pushing to approve President-elect Trump's Cabinet picks "sooner rather than later."

"When President Trump left office, we had the most secure border in American history. The caliphate was destroyed, ISIS was destroyed and Iran was in a box, we killed Soleimani, the Iranian revolutionary guard leader. The last four years have been a freakin' disaster. They rolled back every policy that worked on the border. They went back into the Iran nuclear agreement giving the ayatollah hundreds of millions of dollars that's used for terrorism.

"The confirmations, do 'em now, do 'em quick. Get 'em all done in January, February. We need our team on the field. We need an FBI director, we need an attorney general, we need 'em all. Get hit done. We gotta get it done. We're under attack here. We're at war. … We're under siege here!"