WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Monday, Congressman David Rouzer (NC-07) and a delegation of House Republicans visited the southern border in Eagle Pass, Texas to witness firsthand the magnitude the border catastrophe and humanitarian crisis.
Rouzer visited a Border Patrol processing facility, participated in a ride along with Border Patrol agents, received a briefing from Border Patrol agents regarding the Remain in Mexico policy, drug apprehensions, and cargo inspections, and participated in a roundtable with local business leaders, ranching stakeholders, and residents about life on the border.
“Rather than enforcing our laws, President Biden’s open-border policies are incentivizing illegal immigration and creating a crisis that is growing worse by the day at our southern border,” said Rep. Rouzer. “This week, I witnessed firsthand the severity of his catastrophic policies — rampant drug smuggling, tragic drownings, terrorist apprehensions, and devastation. It’s past time this inhumane disaster is acknowledged by the administration and they reverse their policies enabling and enriching the drug cartels.
“Thank you to our brave law enforcement officials and Border Patrol agents who are working tirelessly under such difficult circumstances to save lives and protect Americans – and doing so, I might add, without the resources and support from the Biden Administration they desperately need.”
Rep. Rouzer released the following information on the Border Crisis:
• Record Border Encounters: This past June alone there were 207,416 border encounters. So far more than 3.9 million known illegal border encounters have occurred under the Biden-Harris administration — plus over 800,000 known “got-aways” who intentionally evade Border Patrol.
• Deadly Drugs: In June, CBP seized 63,854 pounds of drugs and they have seized enough drugs so far this year to kill 2.4 billion people, over seven times the U.S. population.
• National Security Threat: As of June 30, 56 people whose names appear on the terror watch list were stopped trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border between ports of entry this fiscal year. This is twice as many as the last 5 years combined. And that is just what we know about.
• Human Trafficking: The border crisis empowers the cartel and enriches human traffickers. Unaccompanied children are often exploited and bad actors increase their profits from the violence. Most recently, we saw 53 migrants tragically lose their lives in the back of a tractor-trailer last month as a result of human trafficking.
Mr. Rouzer is of course quite aware of what happened to Senate Bill 744.
Stephen Miller and Jeff Sessions played a key role in ensuring the failure of this comprehensive immigration bill introduced by a bipartisan group of senators who became known as the Gang of Eight.
The bill sought to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants while increasing border security.
This bill was on its way to Mr. Trump’s desk for signature.
See: https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/744