Securing the Border During a recent visit to the border at Eagle Pass, Texas, I was both shocked and saddened by the state of our nation’s border with Mexico. I saw firsthand the people and drugs being smuggled across our border with Mexico and heard from law enforcement from across the country tasked with handling this assault on America’s national security. As it stands today, our border is not secure and therefore the American people are not safe. 2023 saw a record number of border encounters. Nearly 2.5 million people were identified as illegally crossing into the United States through what’s known as “border encounters.” That is 42% higher than 2021 when there were just 1.7 million “border encounters.” Since these numbers are just the known encounters, there’s no firm count on the number of others who slipped by without being caught by border patrol. We also know these movements happen based on arrests reported by Customs and Border Patrol. Reports from them show that, just in October 2023, 183 pounds of marijuana, 115 pounds of cocaine, 1,083 pounds of methamphetamine, and 167 pounds of fentanyl were seized. To put this into perspective, the amount of fentanyl captured in October alone is enough to kill 37,874,950 Americans, or nearly the entire population of California! In Arkansas, we unfortunately know these drugs are making their way into our homes and hurting our families. In August, a 15-month-old girl died in Jonesboro from fentanyl poisoning. The Jonesboro Sun reported “the child had ingested enough of the drug to kill her 26 times over.” KAIT8 reports that overdose deaths in Arkansas increased 9% in 2021. Each one of us knows someone impacted by the drugs flooding our streets from Mexico. This is why we must get a handle on this. We must secure our border to save American lives. That is why I visited the border, met with Arkansans helping to secure it, and I will continue to work on solutions with my colleagues in Congress. One of the solutions we’ll vote on next week is the impeachment of Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. It’s clear through my trips to the border that he is not enforcing the law and has no intention to. The numbers since 2021 show it to be true. He could end catch-and-release of illegal immigrants, smugglers, and others but he chooses not to. He and President Biden could also restore the stay-in-Mexico policy. Instead, our cities from border to border and ocean to ocean are being flooded with illegal immigrants and drugs smuggled into our nation. The Senate has recently negotiated a bill that aims to find common ground and a solution. The only thing missing is working with the House on including portions of H.R. 2, a piece of legislation we passed nine months ago. H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, has sat with no action in the Senate since the House passed it in May 2023. It includes some common-sense solutions such as ending catch-and-release and restoring stay-in-Mexico. Let’s give it a vote and then we can continue these conversations instead of continuing to kick the can down the road. Our national security is not a right or left, Republican or Democrat issue. We’ve seen in recent months Democrats from across the country ready to take on the fight and Republicans are doing the same. I promise my voice will continue to be loud as we push for enforcement of America’s laws and pass new laws to strengthen our national security. Rep. Rick Crawford | 2422 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected]