House Speaker Mike Johnson and a delegation of 64 Republican lawmakers began the new year with a visit to Eagle Pass, Texas, along our lawless southern border. According to recent polls, 70 percent of Americans – including 55 percent of Democrats – believe that “stricter policies” are needed to end the humanitarian, fiscal and national security crises on our borders that they see as a direct result of Biden administration policies.
Speaker Johnson has a golden opportunity to deliver real border security this month. One of the first items on Congress’ agenda in 2024 is approval of a $106 billion supplemental foreign aid package that President Biden requested in October. There is broad bipartisan support for additional funding to help Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan confront threats posed by Iran (and its numerous proxies), Russia and China. But, it’s time to deliver for the American people and provide the tools needed to secure our own borders too.
Nearly 10 million people, from some 170 different nations, have crossed our borders illegally in the three years since President Biden took office. Millions of these people have barely been vetted before being released into the interior, or have eluded apprehension altogether. This unprecedented surge of illegal immigration shows no sign of abating, even as the threats to our security grow more dire by the day. Meanwhile, the Biden administration adamantly refuses to reverse policies that triggered an five-fold increase in encounters of migrants entering the country illegally since FY 2020.
It was important for Speaker Johnson and his congressional delegation to see first-hand the magnitude of our border crisis, which he described as “heartbreaking and infuriating.” It is essential that they now act to end it.
Encouragingly, during his news conference in Eagle Pass, Speaker Johnson pledged to append H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, that was passed by the House of Representatives last May, to a foreign aid package. Since passing the House, H.R. 2 has languished in the Democratic controlled Senate. The president’s desire to get a deal done on the foreign aid package provides House Republicans the leverage they need to secure our own borders at the same time.
H.R. 2 would mandate the reversal of many key Biden administration policies that have been responsible for the unprecedented surge of illegal immigration imperiling our security and overwhelming communities all across the United States. It includes a host of reforms designed to end the wholesale abuse of our asylum policies; prevent people caught entering illegally from being released into the U.S.; rollback court agreements that have led to the exploitation and trafficking of children; rein in the administration’s abuse of parole authority and the CBP One phone app to allow illegal aliens to enter the country; mandate construction of the border wall, expand detention space, and increase border enforcement manpower.
President Biden and many congressional Democrats have made vague assertions that they are open to some of the reforms included in H.R. 2, but oppose its inclusion in the foreign aid bill. These assurances are not very assuring. For starters, the president already has all the statutory authority he needs to secure our borders and expedite the removal of illegal border-crossers. These powers were being exercised effectively before he became president and he unilaterally abandoned or gutted them beginning on his first day in office.
The fact that President Biden has not been using existing authority to reestablish control of our borders is a clear indication that he doesn’t want to. And sadly, given that the president and his allies continue to reference amnesty legislation he proposed on Day One and cite climate change as a root cause of the border crisis, there is little reason to believe he will change course. Congress must therefore force change upon the executive branch, and the foreign aid package currently before the Senate is the best chance they have to succeed.
To borrow Speaker Johnson’s terminology, it is heartbreaking and infuriating that Congress would only adopt desperately needed measures to preserve our own security and sovereignty because of the president’s desire to protect the security and sovereignty of other nations. But, unfortunately, that is what it has come down to, and the speaker must use this opportunity to do what needs to be done and what the American public wants.
Dan Stein is president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).
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