As Illegal Alien Encounters Surge, GOP Senators Push Border Security Bill

The surge of illegal aliens at the southern border comes shortly after Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, introduced the Secure the Border Act of 2023. The House passed the bill in May, largely along party lines, and now Cruz is calling on his Senate colleagues to support the legislation.  

“Biden’s open borders are an invitation for the cartels to brutalize children, to assault women, to overrun our communities with illegal aliens, and to flood this country with narcotics and fentanyl that kill over 100,000 people per year,” Cruz said in a statement.  

“This bill would stop the Biden Border Crisis dead in its tracks by building the wall, ratcheting up asylum standards, increasing the number of Border Patrol agents, and implementing effective border security policies,” the Texas lawmaker added.  

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, announced his support for the Secure the Border Act in a statement Tuesday, saying, “Every state in the nation, including Iowa, is now a border state,” adding that “border security is national security.”

“Our bill presents commonsense solutions that will protect Americans by putting a stop to the border crisis,” Grassley said.

If passed by the Senate and signed into law, the 211-page bill would address the border crisis, according to Cruz’s office, by:  

• Requiring the Department of Homeland Security to resume border wall construction.
• Increasing the number of Border Patrol agents.
• Tightening asylum standards by restricting asylum to only aliens who present themselves at ports of entry and by requiring aliens to prove they are “more likely than not” to qualify for their asylum claim.
• Narrowing DHS’s power to unilaterally grant parole to illegal aliens.
• Criminalizing visa overstays by making the first offense a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and the second offense a felony punishable by up to a $2,000 fine and up to two years’ imprisonment.
• Stopping nongovernmental organizations from using tax dollars to transport or lodge illegal aliens and provide illegal aliens with lawyers.
• Restricting DHS from using its CBP One app to welcome illegal aliens into the country.
• Requiring employers to use E-Verify.
• Ensuring that CBP has access to the criminal history databases of all countries of origin and transit so that CBP is aware of the criminal history of illegal aliens encountered at the southern border.

More than half of all Senate Republicans are publicly backing the Secure The Border Act, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky; Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee; Tom Cotton of Arkansas; J.D. Vance of Ohio; Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran of Kansas; Deb Fischer of Nebraska; Eric Schmitt of Missouri; Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt of Alabama; John Kennedy of Louisiana; Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott of South Carolina; John Thune of South Dakota; John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota; Mike Lee of Utah; Ted Budd and Thom Tillis of North Carolina; Steve Daines of Montana; Cynthia Lummis and John Barrasso of Wyoming; Todd Young and Mike Braun of Indiana; Ron Johnson of Wisconsin; John Cornyn of Texas, and Grassley.

A schedule for a Senate vote on the border security bill has not yet been announced.  

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