The following statement was issued by Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), regarding the failure of the House of Representatives to include meaningful border enforcement language in the Continuing Resolution:
(Washington, D.C., September 30, 2023) "During this spending battle, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives squandered a chance to address one of the nation's most pressing crises—our dangerously out-of-control borders. The Continuing Resolution (CR), which was offered on the floor Friday, included many of the spending cuts conservative Republicans were demanding and it included strong policy changes that would have reversed the Biden administration's open-borders policies. Yet, nearly two dozen House Republicans voted against it.
"After that failure, Speaker McCarthy today put a clean CR on the floor that offers no spending cuts and no immigration enforcement provisions, but succeeded in passing it with the support of Democrats. In doing so, the Republicans who blocked Friday's CR proposal allowed the perfect to become the enemy of the good. The good, in this case, would have been passage of meaningful border enforcement measures and a step toward the overall budget cuts they championed.
"The Senate, eager to capitalize on this failure, quickly moved to pass the clean CR offered by the House. The result is that, even in the face of new record numbers of encounters at the border, for the next 45 days nothing will change and the crisis at the border will rage on.
"The CR passed today allows President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas to continue their open-borders agenda, and actually provides them the opportunity to abuse our immigration laws to help facilitate the entry of illegal aliens. The status quo is not acceptable, and only policy changes will avert the crisis that the American people and communities across the country see today.
"Congress' failure to act in the face of this raging border crisis and humanitarian disaster is unconscionable. Between now and November 17, when the CR runs out, House leaders must make it clear that any spending agreements for FY 2024 must include H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act.
"What took place over the last few days was a missed opportunity to address a full-fledged crisis. The nation cannot afford to wait. Congress has failed us once. It must use the next 45 days to act."
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