Earlier this year, I visited our nation’s southern border. I knew there was a crisis there, but that visit opened my eyes to more instability and hardship than I had previously seen. Along the border wall at midnight, my colleagues and I spoke with dozens of illegal immigrants who had been detained. I was heartbroken to meet a little six-month-old baby sitting by the wall with her mother waiting to go to the processing center. I was told this was not an unusual occurrence.
Many of these migrants — regardless of age, ability, or family size — are forced to interact with “coyotes” and cartels on their journeys to the border. Despite immense danger, migrants keep rushing to our southern border. And they do it because they’ve been invited by this administration to take this treacherous trek to enter our country illegally.
President Biden built his administration on promises to make it easier for migrants to get into our country. As a result, our nation has seen a historic spike in illegal immigration.
Since President Biden’s inauguration, over six million migrants have made it to our southern border. Border Patrol agents have seized over 45,000 pounds of fentanyl — the deadliest drug in our country today. That’s not to mention the hundreds of known terrorists who have been identified at the border, or the many illegal immigrants who have slipped past our porous border without being counted.
The Biden administration has created a national security and humanitarian crisis at our border. In the Senate, my colleagues and I are pushing back and working to address this massive problem. I recently introduced the Secure the Border Act with Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R). This border security package has already passed the House of Representatives as H.R. 2.
The Secure the Border Act includes a collection of critical provisions that would change things at our border. The Biden administration stopped constructing a wall on our southern border, despite the fact that Congress had already provided funds and materials for the wall. Our legislation would pick up where the Trump administration left off and resume construction on the border wall.
Our border security package would also implement a range of asylum reforms. It would get rid of the Biden administration’s smartphone app appointment scheduling function. Instead of giving migrants concierge services at the click of a button, our Border Patrol agents should be evaluating asylum applications in a thorough and organized manner.
The Secure the Border Act would finally close the catch-and-release loophole that the Biden administration refuses to address. It would bring back a policy similar to the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” protocols. Rather than letting illegal immigrants into our country while they wait for asylum proceedings, this policy would authorize the removal of illegal immigrants to a third country during that process.
These are just some of the reforms included in the Secure the Border Act. The package would get to work fixing the mess President Biden has created at the border. It would address the humanitarian crisis that continues building, and it would ensure rigorous security standards to keep our nation safe. The Biden administration may be ignoring their border disaster, but my colleagues and I are not.
Thank you for participating in the democratic process. I look forward to visiting with you again next week.