U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) on Friday joined U.S. Senators Katie Britt (R-Alabama), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and fifteen other U.S. Senate colleagues in introducing the Secure the Border Act of 2023 to combat the border crisis.
This bill is the Senate companion to legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year, commonly known as H.R. 2, which would resume construction on the wall at our southern border, tighten asylum standards, criminalize visa overstays, increase the number of Border Patrol Agents, defund non-government organizations receiving tax dollars to help traffic illegal immigrants throughout the country and prohibit the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from using its app to assist illegal immigrants.
“The crisis at our southern border gets worse with each passing day under Joe Biden’s watch,” said Sen. Tuberville. “Americans are tired of sending taxpayer dollars to help other countries secure their borders while leaving the floodgates open at ours. We are losing people every day to fentanyl and other deadly drugs that are pouring across the border. This madness must stop. I’m proud to join my Senate colleagues to introduce this legislation, and hope those on the other side of the aisle will help us address this severe national security issue.”
“We have to acknowledge the problem before we can solve it, but President Biden hasn’t even been willing to do that,” Sen. Britt said. “With a record number of Americans dying from fentanyl poisoning, record deaths among migrants attempting to cross the border, record profits by the cartels, and a record amount of people on the terrorism watchlist apprehended at the border, there is no doubt that this is a crisis unlike which we have ever seen.”
“Under Joe Biden, we have a wide-open southern border,” Sen. Cruz said. “The Biden Border Crisis has created the largest illegal immigration crisis in our nation’s history. Biden’s open borders are an invitation for the cartels to brutalize children, to assault women, to overrun our communities with illegal aliens, and to flood this country with narcotics and fentanyl that kill over 100,000 people per year. This bill would stop the Biden Border Crisis dead in its tracks by building the wall, ratcheting up asylum standards, increasing the number of Border Patrol Agents, and implementing effective border security policies.”
Joining Senators Tuberville, Britt, and Cruz in the legislation are Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R- Kentucky), Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), and U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), JD Vance (R-Ohio), Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska), Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri), Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee), John Kennedy (R-Louisiana), John Hoeven, (R-North Dakota), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Ted Budd (R-North Carolina), Steve Daines (R-Montana), and Presidential candidate Tim Scott (R-South Carolina).
The Secure the Border Act enacts effective border security solutions, including:
· Requiring the Department of Homeland Security to resume border wall construction.
· Increasing the number of Border Patrol Agents.
· Tightening asylum standards by restricting asylum to only aliens who present at ports of entry and by requiring aliens to prove they are “more likely than not” to qualify for their asylum claim.
· Narrowing DHS’s power to unilaterally grant parole to illegal aliens.
· Criminalizing visa overstays by making the first offense a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and the second offense a felony punishable by up to a $2,000 fine and up to two years imprisonment.
· Stopping NGOs from using tax dollars to transport or lodge illegal aliens and provide illegal aliens with lawyers.
· Restricting DHS from using its CBP One app to welcome illegal aliens into the country.
· Requiring employers to use E-Verify.
· Ensuring CBP has access to the criminal history databases of all countries of origin and transit so that CBP is aware of the criminal history of illegal aliens encountered at the southern border.
Sen. Tuberville supports common-sense policies that strengthen our border and national security, like building the wall and reinstating the Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the Remain in Mexico policy.
With Democrats controlling the Senate, it is unlikely that they will allow this legislation to go to the floor, and if it did pass Congress, it is unlikely that President Biden will sign it.
Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, and HELP Committees.
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