Dear John,

The Southern Border of the United States has become a focal point of intense debate and growing concern, as the surge of illegal immigration, human trafficking, and drug smuggling continues to strain resources and test the limits of enforcement.  Since the Biden-Harris Administration began, record migrant encounters at the border have led to overcrowded facilities, overwhelmed Border Patrol personnel, and escalating humanitarian challenges.  With tensions mounting, the crisis at the southern border remains one of the most pressing issues facing the country today.  You can read more below. 

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We’ve continued to see record-breaking numbers at the Southern Border since the Biden-Harris Administration took office.  Because they stopped building the border wall and ended the remain in Mexico policy, the U.S. has seen drastic increases in border crossings, gotaways, illegal immigrants with criminal records, record amounts of drugs such as fentanyl being smuggled in, and even hundreds on the terrorist watchlist have entered America.  Here are some statistics of the Biden-Harris Administration’s border policies:

• There have been OVER 10 MILLION illegal immigrant encounters nationwide. 
• There have been OVER 8.3 MILLION illegal immigrant encounters at our Southern Border.
• There have been roughly 2 million known gotaways who evaded U.S. Border Patrol.  
• The Biden-Harris Administration has failed to remove 99.7% of the illegal immigrants released into the United States between January 2021 to September 2023.
• There have been more known gotaways than in the previous decade combined.

In September, the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Agency (ICE) released data showing hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants with criminal records are loose in the United States.  Because of this Administration’s lack of border security, every state has become a border state.  Here are some of the people that the Administration has set free across America, as of July, 2024:

• As of July 21, 2024, there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket.  There are 425,431 convicted criminals and 222,141 with pending criminal charges not in detention including:  
  • 14,301 convicted of burglary
  • 56,533 with drug convictions 
  • 13,099 convicted of homicide
  • 2,231 convicted of assault
  • 2,521 have kidnapping convictions 
  • 15,811 have sexual assault convictions

In the last four years, we’ve also seen a rise in drugs being smuggled in from across the Southern Border.  Drug cartels use children crossing the border to bring in fentanyl, cocaine, and more.  It’s become a multi-billion dollar business for drug cartels.

• OVER 200,000 Americans have died from the illegal drugs being smuggled across the Southern Border by the criminal cartels.
• In August alone, CBP seized close to 1,700 pounds of fentanyl pouring across our borders. 

House Republicans have been working to stop this crisis though. In May 2023, almost a year and a half ago, we passed H.R. 2 Secure the Border Act of 2023.  The strongest border security bill in history has fallen on deaf ears in the Senate though.  Here’s what H.R. 2 includes:

• Forces the Biden Administration to restart construction of the border wall
• Deploys technology to the Southern and Northern Border
• Increases the number of Border Patrol agents and provides bonus pay
• Requires transparency regarding illegal crossings from the Department of Homeland Security
• Strengthens current law to protect unaccompanied children from human trafficking
• Ends catch-and-release
• Ends abuse of executive immigration authority
• Strengthens and streamlines the asylum process

House Republicans will continue to push for a secure Southern Border.