Throughout Joe Biden's presidency, our Southwest border has been a train wreck. Even worse, it has turned into a full-blown national security and humanitarian crisis. Because of the constant sea of illegal immigrants crossing the border illegally, it is much more difficult for Border Security agents to catch criminals and deadly drugs, like fentanyl, amidst the chaos.

In over 18 months with Joe Biden occupying the Oval Office, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reported over 3.1 million encounters with illegal immigrants at our Southwest border, which far exceeds the number of encounters throughout the entirety of the Trump Administration.

With no change in approach to alleviate the out-of-control border crisis, it's becoming increasingly evident that the Biden Administration is actively encouraging illegal immigration. To make matters worse, the White House is now reportedly planning yet another reckless policy that will further exacerbate the ongoing crisis.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Secure Docket Card program is intended to permit illegal immigrants to check in with ICE virtually instead of reporting to an ICE office in-person. This has, unfortunately, led to many opting to not report and disappear into our local communities without proper screening. As a result, a division within ICE, known as the Alternatives to Detention (ATD), is expected to begin to provide illegal border crossers with government-issued identification (ID) cards, a move that will undoubtedly draw even more illegal immigrants to the border.

Rewarding illegal immigrants who knowingly broke the law with a government-issued ID is wrong and raises many questions. Will illegal aliens use these ID cards to improperly access housing or healthcare? Further, will the issuance of ID cards divert the focus of ICE from enforcing our immigration laws?

With a mission of conducting oversight on ICE's plan to issue IDs to illegal immigrants, I led my House Oversight Committee colleagues on a letter to the Acting ICE Director, Tae Johnson, demanding documents and communications related to the agency's plans to roll out the Secure Docket Card program. We are eager to investigate the Biden Administration’s erosion of the rule of law and ICE’s failure to engage in immigration enforcement.

It's no secret that the border crisis is preventable and self-inflicted, and the issuance of IDs to illegal immigrants serves as yet another incentive for people from all over the world to cross our Southwest border. The ICE Secure Docket Card program will help drive an unprecedented surge of illegal immigrants to the border at a time when Border Patrol is already understaffed and overworked. My colleagues and I on the House Oversight Committee are pressing for answers for the American people.

For every dollar printed by the Federal Reserve, the dollars already in circulation lose value. I spoke on the House floor to warn my colleagues that spending increases will fuel the inflation crisis, not end it.