Thirty-two months and nearly 9 million illegal border crossings (including “gotaways”) into President Biden’s term in office, his administration has finally acknowledged that there is a crisis at our border. On October 5, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it will waive 26 laws to “install additional physical barriers and roads (including the removal of obstacles to detection of illegal entrants) … to deter illegal crossings in areas of ‘high illegal entry’ into the United States” [emphasis added]. Mayorkas stated there was an “acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States.”
In plain English, the DHS announcement indicates the administration’s intention of resuming construction of the border wall that the president cancelled on his first day in office. It is also a tacit admission on the part of the administration that physical barriers along the border are effective at stemming the flood of illegal migration, and that halting construction of the wall was a mistake. So, too, were other policy decisions, like resuming large-scale catch-and-release of illegal migrants, ending the Remain in Mexico policy and terminating country of first refuge agreements with Central American governments.
The Biden administration, which has brazenly ignored countless requirements to enforce immigration laws, claimed that the decision to construct new wall was solely due to a legal requirement that they could not evade. Whether the move was precipitated by a sudden compulsion to comply with the law, or the realization that Election Day is only 13 months off and the American public is understandably alarmed about the disaster he has created at the border and in communities all across the country, Congress must act now to ensure that the border is secured. The House of Representatives has already acted to achieve that goal. In May, the House approved H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, and has continued to fight to include substantial parts of that bill in its FY 2024 DHS Appropriations bill.
Now that the White House has admitted we have a serious problem at our borders, it is time for the Democratic-controlled Senate to act as well. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has introduced H.R. 2 in the Senate, which Majority Leader Chuck Schumer can schedule for a vote as a free-standing bill, or accept as part of a final budget deal that is hammered out between now and November 17. It should not go unnoticed that Sen. Schumer makes his home in New York City, which is reeling under the impact of the migrant influx that Mayor Eric Adams says “will destroy” the Big Apple if it continues.
Resuming border wall construction is a good first step to regaining control of the border, but it will take time. There is much more that needs to be done that can have an immediate impact on the situation. Enactment of H.R. 2 would provide immediate relief at our borders and for communities all across the country that are being overwhelmed by this crisis.
The legislation now awaiting action by the Senate requires the construction of the border wall along no less than 900 miles of our southern border. Among other provisions, the bill provides funding to increase the ranks of the beleaguered Border Patrol to 22,000 agents and increases detention space, an essential step in ending wholesale catch-and-release of migrants pouring across the border. H.R. 2 also prevents this and subsequent administrations from creating unauthorized back doors to allow otherwise inadmissible aliens to enter the country by asserting virtually unlimited parole authority.
Sen. Cruz and his Republican colleagues have vowed to do all within their power to ensure strong border enforcement measures are included in the final FY 2024 funding bill. The announcement by the administration that it will resume building the border wall should open the door to bipartisan support for the common sense reforms that the bill offers to bring an end to a crisis that is overwhelming red and blue states alike.
It will be hard to undo the damage that has been caused by the Biden administration’s systematic dismantlement of border and immigration enforcement. But the Senate, following the lead by the House, now has a green light to prevent the situation from getting even worse.
Dan Stein is president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.