Night
after night, Wyoming citizens are turning on the news to see a national
security and humanitarian crisis unfolding at our southern border. This
influx in illegal immigration, which is the largest surge we’ve
seen in two decades, is a threat to the safety of American families,
border patrol agents and law enforcement as well as immigrants
pursuing a lawful path to citizenship.
Here in Wyoming, we know fences make good neighbors. On a
national level, a secure border keeps us safe. In San
Diego for example, a short 12-mile section of border wall reduced
the number of agents needed to protect the area, saving $28 million
in salaries while increasing the number of illegal drug
seizures.
Under the previous
Administration, we found a workable solution to our border problems. Working
with the Mexican government, we kept asylum applicants in Mexico while
processing their applications to determine who qualified, and we did so
while building a border wall to disrupt drug smuggling and human
trafficking by violent cartels. As a result, since
wall construction began in Arizona and California, illegal border
crossings dropped by 24 percent in Tucson and by 27 percent in San Diego.
In Yuma, they dropped by 78 percent.
Under President Biden, we are undoing all of that hard
work. President Biden’s rhetoric and executive actions are
sending a message to cartels and migrants that you don’t have to
follow the law, because we aren’t going to enforce it. This has
spawned a crisis.
Just last
month the number of unaccompanied minors crossing the border smashed the previous record by at least 60 percent.
Border agents are overwhelmed, and it’s getting worse. More than 100,000 migrants were apprehended at the
border in February, up 28 percent from January.
This is a crisis of President Biden’s own
making. But don’t take my word for it: The
majority of Americans agree that President Biden’s
immigration policies are bad for America, and believe he’s botching
the crisis at our southern border.
As your U.S. Senator,
I’m committed to working with my colleagues to address our broken
immigration system and stop the onslaught of illegal immigration
currently taking place. Just last month I sent a
letter with my colleague, Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), to
the Government Accountability Office raising our concerns about
President Biden’s move to halt funding of the wall along our southern
border. Congress specifically allocated funds for the construction of
the border wall, so it is the responsibility of the executive branch to
carry out the directives of that funding.
Additionally, I joined Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK)
and other colleagues in an effort to officially
declare the situation at the southern border a crisis. This is
obvious to anyone looking at the facts, and the Senate must ensure President
Biden knows our concern.
We are a nation of law and order. We reward law-abiding, hardworking
aspirants with citizenship. But by letting others come to the United
States illegally, President Biden is insulting those new American
citizens who did it right. That’s unjust. It’s unfair. And
it’s not how we treat neighbors in Wyoming. For the good of the
country, it’s time to secure the border.
Happy Trails,
