Welcome back to E-PAC's weekly newsletter. For this week, we wanted to share Elise’s latest and very important Op-Ed on Biden’s Border Crisis in the New York Post:
President Joe Biden's border crisis is nothing short of catastrophic for the United States of America. Will Democrats ever join with the Republicans working to solve it? The unprecedented chaos is a national security, economic, and humanitarian travesty directly caused by the Biden administration's failed open-border policies.
Every American is deeply aware of the mayhem at the southern border. But, as a member of Congress who represents Upstate New York, I have also sounded the alarm on the alarming crisis at our northern border.
In New York, we have seen low morale from our brave Border Patrol agents, and illegal immigrants crossing the border from Canada. Since the start of Biden’s presidency, every state has turned into a border state, and every community a border community.
On Biden’s watch, records have been shattered as 11,000 immigrants crossed the border illegally in a single day, 85,000 migrant children have been lost and over 5 million illegal crossings occurred at the southern border.
And just last week, we learned that nearly 110,000 people died from overdoses last year, largely in part due to fentanyl flooding in through our open border. To truly grasp the grim reality of Biden's disastrous border crisis, look no further than the Empire State, where illegal immigrants are prioritized over American citizens while hardworking law-enforcement and Border Patrol agents are vilified.
Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams have further fueled the grave crisis. State officials are contacting Upstate SUNY campuses to forcibly accept illegal migrants. Upstate New York communities are already struggling to provide resources for our residents and should not be used as sanctuary cities to clean up Biden's catastrophic border crisis. It is clear to every New Yorker and every American that Biden, Hochul and Adams are ill-equipped to handle this crisis. New York should be focused on putting our citizens first, not illegal immigrants breaking our laws.
Recently, I expressed my strong support for New York county executives and local officials who have declared states of emergency in their counties as a way of blocking Adams’s unlawful attempt to burden our communities with New York City’s illegal immigrants. Not only would forcibly relocating these illegal immigrants violate certain local laws, but it would also take away resources from already-struggling citizens of these counties, resulting in further devastation across New York state.
Earlier this month, House Republicans kept our promise and passed the Secure the Border Act, the strongest border security package the United States has ever seen. This legislation would force the Biden administration to finish President Trump’s border wall, deploy technology to the southern and northern borders, increase the number of Border Patrol agents and provide bonus pay, require transparency from the Department of Homeland Security regarding illegal border crossings, strengthen current laws to protect children from human trafficking, end catch and release and streamline the asylum process.
Unfortunately, every single House Democrat voted against these commonsense measures to secure our border and protect our citizens.
Biden created this border crisis, House Republicans are committed to solving it.
