Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (Screenshot)

(CNSNews.com) - Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” on Thursday that an illegal immigrant’s confession in the murder of Mollie Tibbetts illustrates that it’s time for the GOP Senate leadership to change Senate rules and allow votes to be decided by a simple majority instead of the veto-proof 60-vote margin so that Republicans can approve President Donald Trump’s immigration priorities and secure the border.



“It’s time for the Republicans and Democrats in Congress to do something about it. Don’t misinterpret my passion for anger. Anger gets us nowhere, but passion can. I’m tired of Mitch McConnell not changing the rules to bypass Chuck Schumer and the Democrats. It’s time for the Republicans who are in the majority to follow the president’s lead, fund the wall, and secure this border,” Patrick said.





The lieutenant governor said he can only imagine what Tibbetts went through - “the fear in her eyes, her heart beating in terror as her life was taken away.”



“And I look at Chuck Schumer, and in my view for pure politics, the blood of her and Kate Steinle and the thousands across America in the last decade or more who have been killed by criminal aliens, many of them here illegally, the blood is on Chuck Schumer’s hands and every Democrat, and the Republicans who won’t change the rules,” Patrick said.



“In Texas, we had a few knucklehead Republicans and liberal Democrats who blocked us from banning sanctuary cities when I was a senator, and on day one, when I became lieutenant governor in 2015, we changed the rules in the Senate so that wouldn’t happen, and we would have banned sanctuary cities,” he said.



Tibbetts’ murder took place in rural Iowa, not a border state like Texas, but Patrick considers “every sheriff in America” to be “a border sheriff.”



“I have been saying for years here with you and on other Fox shows every sheriff in America is a border sheriff, and they will tell you that,” he said. “And when criminal aliens brought here by cartels - remember, you don’t cross the border without the cartels allowing you to cross - come to the heartland of America and grab this poor girl and take the life out of her, the town of 1400 people, America better wake up,” he said.



The lieutenant governor said in states like Indiana, Montana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and West Virginia that have Democratic senators, “Republicans better get up and get out and vote.”



“If Mitch McConnell won’t change the rules, then we’re gonna have to get close to 60 Republicans in the Senate so that Chuck Schumer won’t block these bills. This is pure politics, and it’s not just about the American lives, who I don’t think they give a damn about quite frankly. It’s about the people who do want to come here, not the criminals, but the people who want to be proud Americans who want to come to this country like people came through Ellis Island, legally, proud to be Americans,” Patrick said.



“Most of the people that cross the border that come here for a better life, they don’t want to have swim here across the river. They don’t want to have to be raped by their, by their handlers as a bounty to cross. They don’t want to be stuffed in an 18-wheeler. They want to come here legally. They want to live out of the shadows. They want to be part of this country, but until Congress fixes this, it’s not gonna happen, and we’re gonna see more Americans die,” he said.



Patrick said hundreds of people in Texas were killed by illegal immigrants and states like Texas must use their taxpayer funds to do what the federal government didn’t do under former President Barack Obama.



“Just in Texas in the last seven years, we’ve had hundreds killed by illegal immigrants. We’ve had over a 150 kidnappings. We’ve had nearly 6,000 people sexually assaulted by criminals, and we’re spending billions of dollars of our taxpayer money to do what the federal government was not doing under Obama, and this president is doing everything he can,” the lieutenant governor said.



Yarrabee Farms is the company that employed 24-year-old Cristhian Rivera, the illegal immigrant who confessed to killing Tibbetts. The owners said that Rivera had been vetted through E-Verify, but reports say that Rivera used a fake Social Security number.



“This is a game they play. They turn in fake Social Security numbers until they get caught up by the Social Security system, and you know what happens? Under the laws, you can’t ask them about it. You just say we got a false hit by Social Security on you. Can you give us-- did you make a mistake? And then that illegal person goes to another company and does the same thing,” Patrick said.



Patrick said his state passed E-Verify for government contractors and contracts, and they plan to do it for private business as well.