There’s a crisis at the southern border, but only one political party wants to do something about it.
The crisis is the border being overwhelmed by people wanting to enter the United States. But one party is actually trying to make the crisis worse, while the other wants to make the crisis manageable.
Of course, it’s not portrayed that way in the media. The party that wants to make the problem worse is praised for its “compassion” and “humaneness.” The party wanting to stabilize the problem is portrayed as evil and heartless.
No matter what the GOP does about the border, they will never change that perception of themselves in the media. So why not go all the way and propose policies that would actually result in fewer people trying to cross the border?
Republicans in the House are introducing a border security bill that doesn’t have a ghost of a chance at passage. But it illustrates and illuminates the differences between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to who is serious about protecting the country.
It is Republicans’ solution to the situation at the southern border, where, in one example illustrating the scope of the problem, a premier migrant organization in South Texas has become so overwhelmed that it is turning away migrants who have been released from federal custody. Since the start of fiscal year 2021, illegal immigrant encounters are up 362% from the same time last year, and border authorities have seized enough fentanyl to kill 1.9 billion people.
“The Biden Administration’s failure to secure our southern border puts every American’s security at risk,” Stefanik, the third-highest Republican in the House, said in a statement.
“Biden’s open border policies have been a complete disaster, causing the worst border crisis we’ve seen in over 20 years,” she added. “As the number of encounters continue to rise, drugs and weapons are flooding across our southern border, and Democrats have turned their backs on our border patrol agents and law enforcement.”
The bill would restart border wall contracts that Biden canceled, fund advanced technology that would assist law enforcement at the border, and increase the number of homeland security employees working at the international boundary.
Nothing radical. Nothing revolutionary. Nothing really very expensive. Just commonsense steps to get a handle on a situation made infinitely worse by Biden’s “compassionate” and “humane” policies.
This is a bill with some backbone.
Border authorities would have to fly unmanned aerial systems, or drones, over the border day and night, every day. Every federal agent and officer would be equipped with a radio to ease communication and improve response time. At ports of entry where vehicles are inspected before being allowed into the country, all license plate scanners would have to be updated to the latest technology.
The Homeland Security Act of 2002 would be amended to require that DHS submit an implementation plan for how it will digitally track immigrants entering and leaving the country, which was called for 19 years ago but has not gone into effect nationwide at airports and all other land and sea ports of entry.
There would be more money for local law enforcement as well. In addition, there would be money to hire 3,500 new border agents to augment the 19,000 already working. And there would be 1,200 additional employees to work at processing centers in order to free up agents from taking care of families and individuals already in custody.
The number of law enforcement officers at the ports of entry would be increased to 27,725, and air and marine officers would jump to 1,675 agents. More than 200 new K-9 units would be hired across Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the Border Patrol, ports of entry, and air and marine patrols.
The bill wouldn’t “solve” anything, but it would improve the situation at the border–which is already out of control and will only get worse once public health orders expire and a new flood of illegals show up to be allowed in.
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