Dear friend,
One of the policies you and many more constituents have reached out to me about is the Biden Administration's immigration policies, effectively leaving our Southern border wide open.
Since the day he assumed office in January of this year, President Biden began dismantling every common-sense policy President Trump put in place - for no other reason that it was Trump who did it.
Trump's immigration policies protected Americans, empowered border patrol agents to combat the cartels, enforced law and order along our border, and protected the process of legal immigration.
On day one, President Biden halted construction of the border wall, ordered a 100-day deportation freeze, ended the Asylum Cooperative Agreement with Northern Triangle countries, raised the refugee cap, reimplemented catch-and-release and cancelled the Remain in Mexico program. This had a direct and dire impact on Americans living along the Southern border.
In the last eleven months, here's what Biden's refusal to enforce immigration law has led to:
- The Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the Remain in Mexico policy, was repealed as soon as Biden took office. The Remain in Mexico policy allowed those who entered our country illegally to stay in Mexico while awaiting their US immigration hearing. When Biden repealed it, it signaled to migrants that they would be able to come into the US without any obligation to show up for their asylum hearing and without anyone tracking their whereabouts.
- Catch and Release is a policy President Trump repealed, but Biden re-implemented. Catch and Release is when federal border agents apprehend illegal immigrants and release them into the interior of the country without a Notice to Appear at an asylum hearing or any tracking of their legal status.
- A 100-day deportation moratorium was ordered by Biden immediately after his inauguration and was quickly blocked by a federal judge, who ruled it unconstitutional. The sentiment of a deportation freeze reassures would-be migrants that if they enter our country illegally, there will be no consequences or accountability, further incentivizing illegal entry.
- The Asylum Cooperative Agreements was a negotiation made with Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador that required individuals traveling through these countries to claim asylum there before claiming asylum in the US. Biden's repeal of this policy overwhelmed our border patrol agents and asylum judges, further backing up the system.
In addition to these dangerous measures from the Biden Administration, Democrat leaders in Congress included language in their Build Back Better package to provide amnesty for roughly eight million illegal aliens along with hundreds of thousands of new green cards. This will incentivize even more illegal immigration at the cost of American taxpayers for their free health care, public education, housing, jobs, and wages.
Here are some of the immigration bills I have sponsored and co-sponsored this year:
- HR 2022, Asylum Abuse Reduction Act - a bill I wrote with Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe to codify the Remain in Mexico policy.
- HR 6206, amending the Immigration and Nationality Act - to reform the H-1B visa program.
- HR 5854, Illegal Immigrant Payoff Prohibition Act - in response to reports that the Biden Administration aims to pay migrant families $450,000 per family, this bill would prevent taxpayer dollars from going to settlement payments for migrants who broke our laws and came to the country illegally.
- HR 812, Security First Act - provides more resources to law enforcement through Operation Stonegarden, a grant program that allows local law enforcement to augment border patrol efforts at the Southern border.
- HR 471, Protecting Americans from Unnecessary Spread upon Entry (PAUSE) Act - enforces COVID safety measures at our Southern border to ensure illegal immigrants are not bringing COVID into the country.
We are closing out Biden's first year in office with a 379% increase in Southwest border apprehensions from the previous year. The common-sense policies from President Trump would vastly reduce illegal immigration and ensure those crossing illegally are held accountable by our legal system.
In order to ensure our citizens are kept safe and our borders are protected, Congress needs to implement these policies into law. Until President Biden, Secretary Mayorkas, and Vice President Harris start taking illegal immigration and border policy seriously, Americans are at risk and our law and order is in jeopardy.
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