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John:
The Olympics ended in August, but Congress has returned to Washington for a three week sprint (I’m sorry. I had to make that joke.).
Congress is engaging in its annual tradition of generally not having a plan for the government funding deadline that they’ve known about all year – except this time, there is sort of a plan! As discussed last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson is aligning himself with conservatives to push a short-term Continuing Resolution into early next year, combined with the SAVE Act to require proof of citizenship before voting.
The Democratic Senate, with the backing of Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, opposes the plan. The establishment would like to engage in its annual tradition of a CR until December, where Congress will return in a lame duck session to pass an omnibus spending bill funding the government at President Biden’s preferred levels for the next year – and why not toss in a bunch of unrelated expiring programs and goodies for K Street, big pharma, and the defense base while they’re at it?
No one particularly wants a shutdown, but fights like these take a steely nerve and are only settled by who blinks first. House Republicans have a compelling case for inclusion of the SAVE Act. As Sen. Mike Lee told The Blaze, “If progressives really want so badly to have noncitizens voting then they’re going to have to say so.”
And while we’re on the topic of illegal immigration, the Wall Street Journal released a deep dive examination of how unchecked migration is changing our markets, labor force, and economy. But before even looking at the effects, the sheer numbers are staggering. “Since the start of 2021, net immigration to the U.S. has totaled roughly 9.3 million people,” notes the Journal. “That’s more than three times the net number of people that entered the country over the previous four years” (emphasis added). Less than 30 percent of that number entered the country legally.
While the debate in Congress focuses exclusively on attempts to protect federal elections from this surge of noncitizens, the ramifications of President Biden’s open borders will linger for generations. It is not an exaggeration to suggest that our country’s political economy is being remade. From entitlements to housing to schooling to labor markets, there is virtually no segment of government policy that will remain untouched by these massive waves of illegal migration.
Rep. Chip Roy has focused on this crisis for the last several years, and a new report from his office attempts to quantify and assess the damage. Among his key findings:
- More than 8.5 million illegal migrants crossed the U.S.-Mexico border since Biden entered office, surpassing the population of 37 states, with at least 5.6 million of them released into the country;
- A record-breaking 169 known or suspected terrorists were arrested in the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2023, with at least 99 illegal migrants on the terror watchlist having been released into the U.S. between fiscal years 2021 and 2023;
- Fentanyl poisonings killed 75,000 Americans in 2023, averaging 200 deaths a day.
“Our country is being torn apart – from dangerous fentanyl to lawless criminals, from known terrorists to death and abuse of migrants, from massive financial costs to fundamental re-making of American society including non-citizen voters,” Rep. Roy told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “It’s purposeful – and the damage is far reaching. Every journalist, politician, and American should read this report and seethe with rage.”
The Latest From Around The Conservative Movement
One More Thing..
The Center for Renewing America is out with a teaser for a forthcoming documentary called Fearless At The Point of Attack: The Jeff Clark Story. Watch it here.
Sincerely,
Rachel Bovard
Vice President of Programs
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