Dear Friend,
The situation at our southern border is nothing less than a national security and humanitarian crisis and the cause of this chaos falls directly on President Biden's open-border agenda – and his Administration's policies that don't enforce America’s immigration laws.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has confirmed more record high activity as a direct result with more than 260,000 people caught trying to cross the southern border illegally last month alone. CBP has also confirmed that more than 23,000 “known gotaways” have entered our country since October 1, 2023 – meaning more than 1,000 individuals were seen or detected by Border Patrol agents but not apprehended every single day this month.
Making matters worse, we know that 169 people whose names appear on the terrorist watchlist were stopped trying to cross the southern border in Fiscal Year 2023 – another all time record – but now, federal officials are warning that members of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah could be crossing through our borders.
Earlier this year, I worked to pass H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act – the strongest border security measure in history. This critical legislation is focused on protecting communities across the country, stopping the chaos, and restoring Law and Order by:
- restarting construction of the border wall,
- reimplementing "Remain in Mexico" policies,
- increasing the number of Customs and Border Patrol agents,
- and ending catch and release.
As of today, the Senate unfortunately still has not acted on this vital legislation. Border security is national security, and I will continue to call on my Senate colleagues – and the Biden Administration – to act on this commonsense legislation.
