(April 23, 2024, Washington, D.C.) Today, the Senate followed the lead of the House of Representatives in approving $95 billion in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, without including any provisions to secure our own borders and end the unprecedented surge of illegal immigration to the United States.
For months, Republican congressional leaders, in both chambers, pledged that legislation to aid Ukraine must also include all, or substantial parts of H.R.2, the Secure the Border Act. H.R. 2 was passed by the House last May, but Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has refused to bring it up for a vote in the Senate. Earlier this year, House Speaker Mike Johnson vowed that a "border fight is coming, and we're going to die on that hill." Similarly, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stated, "America's national security begins with securing and maintaining our borders. It's a matter of basic sovereignty."
Nevertheless, after several rounds of negotiations on government funding and now on foreign aid, the GOP leadership has squandered numerous opportunities to enact legislation that is vital to the security of our own country.
"Since H.R. 2 passed the House nearly a year ago the world has become a much more dangerous place and the threats to our national security have become even more dire," said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). "Top national security experts, including people who are serving in the Biden administration, have issued explicit warnings of terror threats against the United States and specifically stated that our unsecured borders pose a grave danger to the nation. These warnings have gone unheeded by President Biden, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and the Democratic-led Senate, which refuses to act on H.R. 2.
"Even in the absence of congressional action, the Biden administration could immediately take a variety of actions to roll back its disastrous policies and reduce the tidal wave of illegal immigration at the southern border, including reinstating the Migrant Protection Protocols; ceasing all unlawful parole programs; and detaining illegal aliens encountered rather than releasing them," Stein continued. "But they have not, and are unlikely to, making the failure of the Republican congressional leadership all the more significant.
"Congress will get one more chance to address the Biden administration's border crisis this year as they negotiate the FY 2025 federal budget. Failure to capitalize on that opportunity, in the face of the crisis on our borders and the impacts it is inflicting on American communities across the country, would be unconscionable," concluded Stein.
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