On Tuesday, the former acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security urged congressional appropriators not to provide additional funding for the DHS in 2023 unless policies pushed by the Biden administration that enable illegal immigration are rectified.
Chad Wolf, former acting DHS secretary, shared his letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), and Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX).
Sent a letter to Congressional appropriators laying out the case for NOT providing more funding to DHS unless specific policy changes are included. Congress should not fund the policies that have led us to this crisis. pic.twitter.com/LJvzOgXyWz
— Chad Wolf (@ChadFWolf) December 20, 2022
“Through a series of detrimental policy decisions, the Biden Administration is breaking records for all the wrong reasons – a historic number of illegal apprehensions, gotaways, trafficking of unaccompanied alien children, known or suspected terrorists, attacks on Border Patrol agents, and the list goes on,” he wrote. “Never has our southern border been so exploited and controlled by criminal cartels as they are today.”
“To this end, I strongly encourage you to reject the $4.2 billion requested by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Today’s crisis is not the result of a lack of resources; it is the result of a flawed policy agenda. There is no amount of money that can solve the crisis if the underlying failed policies remain unchanged,” he continued.
On Monday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in remarks in her press briefing that the Biden administration is “surging” resources to the border and needs an additional $3.5 billion from congressional Republicans to continue to do so. These remarks came as Title 42 was expected to expire this week, and the number of illegal immigrants crossing the border would skyrocket. Jean-Pierre claimed if Republicans were "serious" about securing the border, they'd secure the funds.
But, as Townhall noted this week, the border crisis escalated under Biden because he reversed several Trump-era immigration policies that protected our border. These policies included Remain in Mexico and the Asylum Cooperative Agreements, and a straightforward asylum/removal process for illegal immigrants. All this, Wolf noted, and the Biden administration still tries to blame Congress for the border crisis.
“Instead of taking accountability for these failures, the Biden Administration is trying to blame Congress for not passing new immigration laws. This is disingenuous, and I encourage you to reject this false narrative,” Wolf said. “DHS has sufficient authority today to secure the border.”