WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. John Katko (NY-24), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, yesterday joined Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, Whip Steve Scalise, Conference Chair Liz Cheney and other top Republicans to discuss the crisis at the border.
On Monday, Ranking Member Katko will visit the southern border to meet with border patrol agents and see the situation firsthand.
Katko’s remarks, as prepared for delivery:
What we are witnessing of course if Biden’s Border Crisis. If you want to think of it another way, it’s disorder at the border by executive order.
President Biden’s knee-jerk reversal of productive, effective border security policies from the previous Administration was a political calculation that has created a humanitarian, security and public health crisis.
Instead of being transparent with Congress and the American people about what is happening at the Border, the Administration is twisting itself into a pretzel to avoid using the dreaded word, “crisis.”
All we heard out of the White House yesterday was a refusal to take responsibility and yet-to-be-revealed long-term objectives—not an answer to this immediate crisis.
We are a nation of laws, but instead of enforcing the law, the Administration has chosen to:
Halt border wall construction already funded by Congress
Implement “catch and release” policies allowing migrants to flow into American communities amidst a pandemic
Eliminate the critical “Remain in Mexico Policy”
Cancel asylum cooperative agreements with our Central American partners
That’s what they’ve done. What they haven’t done is admit that it’s caused a crisis.
The facts speak for themselves.
FACT: Last month CBP encountered over 100,000 individuals seeking to cross the Southwest border, a 28% increase in just one month and 173% higher than the same time a year ago.
FACT: CBP currently encounters an average of more than 3,000 individuals a day. When Jeh Johnson was Secretary of Homeland Security, he said that 1,000 apprehensions a day was a “bad number.”
FACT: Hundreds of border patrol agents are being diverted from interior drug checkpoints and the northern and coastal borders to the Rio Grande Valley. The Administration is even asking people to volunteer to help with this crisis. You can’t come from England by plane. If you fly from Mexico by plane, you first have to have a test to show you are COVID-free. Yet you can walk across the border and come right in. What is wrong with us? What are we doing?
The high volume of unaccompanied children encountered at the border continues to rise. Reports indicate that CBP is projecting a peak of 13,000 unaccompanied children crossing the border per month by May. HHS facilities are reaching capacity, so they’re checking with NASA and DOD to find facilities to house these children coming across the border because Biden put a “come on in” sign on the border. That is not right.
All of this was predictable. These politically motivated policies have created a crisis that must be reversed. As I said, there is disorder at the border because of his executive order.
Download the latest edition of the “Startling Stats” factsheet here.
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