“On my first day as president, I presented a complete plan to mend our immigration system, secure the border, and much more,” President Joe Biden mentioned during his State of the Union speech last Thursday. It took him over 30 minutes to talk about the top concern for Americans today.
To be clear, this crisis caused by policies continues because the Biden administration is not willing to publicly discourage migrants from crossing the border illegally and enforce existing immigration laws.
President Biden suggested during the address that he is prepared to resolve the border crisis, hinting that Republicans are hindering the effort to secure our southern border.
Instead of accusing Republicans, who have worked to secure the border for years, despite nearly unanimous Democratic opposition, the administration should be truthful with the American people and admit that this border crisis did not happen unexpectedly. If President Biden wants to list the actions that he has taken since his first day in office, Americans deserve a full report. Here’s what he left out.
Some of the earliest actions of the Biden administration aimed to systematically remove the border security policies of the Trump administration. This involves ending a program that requires migrants to stay in Mexico while they wait for their immigration case and using executive orders to stop the construction of the border wall. The results of these independent actions were foreseeable — a significant and overwhelming increase in illegal immigration, with migrants being allowed into the country in large numbers.
President Biden clearly conveyed to the world on Day One of his presidency that our borders are wide-open. Drug cartels and other criminals received the message and exploited it, earning billions of dollars smuggling both drugs and migrants across the porous border. This administration’s policies have overwhelmed our courageous Border Patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection officers on the frontlines, diverting them from their primary missions and making Americans and them less safe.
The numbers speak for themselves. Since President Biden assumed office, there have been over 8.3 million illegal crossings nationwide, including 1.7 million known “gotaways” who evaded Border Patrol. These astounding numbers don’t even include the presumed millions of migrants who successfully avoided being detected.
Additionally, over 54,366 pounds of fentanyl have been intercepted coming across our southern border since January 2021. That is enough to wipe out the entire human population and doesn’t even account for all the illicit drugs that go undetected at our borders and later seep into our local communities.
As chairman of the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee this Congress, my responsibility is to ensure the Department of Homeland Security has enough resources to secure the border and enforce immigration law. We must be responsible with taxpayer dollars and make sure we are not wasting money by supporting harmful policies that harm our fellow Americans.
Last year, Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, took a different approach during his appearance before my Subcommittee. sat in front of my Subcommittee and asked for a budget for President Biden that was full of gimmicks meant to hide the true cost of protecting the Homeland.
This proposal involved funding that reduced border security spending by 10 percent, decreased detention beds by 26 percent, and did not include any funding for the wall or other physical barriers at a time when we are seeing record high illegal immigration.
Instead, the administration’s proposal included a $4.7 billion slush fund to simply “manage” the unchecked surge of illegal migrants coming across our border after the fact, further facilitating their failed policies.
Despite this approach from the White House, the Fiscal Year 2024 House Appropriations Homeland Security bill I authored provides funding to construct the wall, hire additional Border Patrol agents, strengthen border technology, and force the Biden administration to finally address the border security crisis. In September, this bill passed passed the House of Representatives with bipartisan support.
Contrary to his newfound “tough talk” on the border, President Biden’s actions again spoke louder than his words. The Biden administration publicly threatened to veto my bill.
With the stroke of a pen, President Biden could reverse his disastrous executive orders that facilitated this border crisis in the first place, or meaningfully cooperate with House Republicans to pass a strong border security bill. Instead, as he faces an election, he comes to Congress with more words and misplaced blame. So no, Mr. President, the border crisis is not on us, it’s on you.
Dave Joyce represents the 14th District of Ohio and serves as the chairman of the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee.
