Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is now urging his fellow Senate Democrats to “engage” in talks with Republicans about border security as the number of illegal aliens crossing the southern border is equivalent to the “size of Pittsburgh.”

According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources, the number of illegal aliens encountered at the southern border crossing into the United States on December 5 was roughly 12,000, which is the highest single-day total ever recorded in history. “This includes 10,200+ Border Patrol apprehensions of illegal immigrants, amongst the highest daily totals for BP ever recorded,” Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin reported in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

BREAKING: Per CBP sources, there were more than 12,000 migrant encounters at the southern border yesterday, the highest single day total ever recorded. This includes 10,200+ Border Patrol apprehensions of illegal immigrants, amongst the highest daily totals for BP ever recorded.

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) December 6, 2023

As the U.S. continues to see these record numbers under President Joe Biden’s open-borders policies, even Democrats like Fetterman are growing concerned.

Less than 24 hours after Republican senators blocked a $111 billion supplemental funding bill, demanding that an immigration overhaul be included in the national security measure, Fetterman spoke with Politico about his border security concerns.

“I hope Democrats can understand that it isn’t xenophobic to be concerned about the border,” the Pennsylvania senator told the outlet, referring to the rest of the Democrat Party, who argue that nearly any concern about the mass influx of unvetted illegal aliens into the U.S. is actually based on racism.

“It’s a reasonable conversation, and Democrats should engage,” Fetterman added.

The Democrat senator went on to cite the nearly 270,000 reported Border Patrol encounters with illegal aliens at the southwest border last month, stating: “Honestly, it’s astonishing. And this isn’t a Fox News kind of statistic. This is the government’s.”

“You essentially have Pittsburgh showing up there at the border,” he added.

Biden’s supplemental funding request that was blocked by Senate Republicans over border security includes money for the never-ending war in Ukraine, Israel’s war with Hamas, Taiwan and some spending on border security. However, GOP lawmakers are demanding significant immigration reforms, including asylum limits.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), who is handling negotiations on the measure for the Democrats, complained about Republicans’ supposed “hardline demands to shut down the border” in a press release.

His GOP counterpart in the negotiations, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), slammed the supplemental funding request in a video posted to X — where he pointed out that the supposed “border funding” in the bill would likely be used exactly how the Biden administration had used prior funding, “to just pay for more people to facilitate” shipping illegal aliens into the country.

“We cannot work to secure other nations while our own border remains a massive national security risk,” Lankford captioned the post.

We cannot work to secure other nations while our own border remains a massive national security risk–Biden finally admitted yesterday that we need real policy changes to have real border security. pic.twitter.com/ToNSRPtHFc

— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) December 7, 2023

Negotiations between Senate Democrats and Republicans have appeared to be back on track as of Thursday evening, as Republicans reportedly made a counter-offer to the original measure. Biden has also reportedly signaled his willingness to make “significant compromises” when it comes to the border issue.

Meanwhile, Fetterman did not explain any specific concessions he was willing to entertain during his interview with Politico, noting that he didn’t want to “paint myself into a corner.”

The Democrat senator still insisted that he was “perhaps the most pro-immigration member of the Senate,” but emphasized: “I haven’t met anyone that can have a really crisp, cogent solution or easy solution on, ‘Well, what do you do when you have roughly a city similar in size of Pittsburgh coming up to the border?’”