12.01.23

Hoeven Calls for Concrete Border Security Measures, Benchmarks to Prove Law Is Being Enforced

CBP Reports Nearly 250,000 Encounters at Southern Border in First Month of FY2024, More Than 23,000 Gotaways

WASHINGTON – During remarks delivered on the Senate floor this week, Senator John Hoeven outlined the need to secure the nation’s borders. The senator highlighted that, since the beginning of October, nearly 250,000 individuals have attempted to illegally cross the southern border, which does not include those who have evaded U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

This comes in addition to the almost 2.5 million individuals that illegally entered the U.S. in Fiscal Year (FY) 2023, a record high. Hoeven stressed the national security risk this poses to the country, given that known individuals from the terror watch list are among those attempting to illegally cross into the country. Accordingly, the senator is calling for the Biden administration to enforce the law, secure the border and that concrete border security measures be included in any supplemental funding package considered by Congress.

“The cause of this crisis is clear, and the numbers do not lie,” said Hoeven. “After just over a month into Fiscal Year 2024, nearly a quarter of a million people have tried to illegally enter the United States via the southern border. And these are the just the individuals that we know about.

“The American people can see the problem even if the Biden administration can’t, or worse, just continues to choose to ignore it. This crisis is the result of the Biden administration’s failure to secure our border, pure and simple… The administration’s current policies prioritize processing migrants who illegally come across the southern border, and then providing them with housing, transportation, and other services once they enter the United States. The administration is turning CBP into one of the most well-funded government-run travel agencies in the world.

“Any supplemental funding must secure our own border. That means ensuring that the administration reinstates the Migrant Protection Protocols, or the Remain in Mexico Policy; enforces Third Safe Country Agreements; and resumes construction of the border wall. Those are measures are in law now. It doesn’t require legislation from Congress. The administration refuses to enforce them.

“And we need to include benchmarks that hold the administration’s feet to the fire and ensure these policies get enforced. The Biden administration must address the border crisis, enforce the laws that kept monthly encounters to lower numbers under the prior administration, and take border security seriously, because border security is national security.”

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