07.21.23

Hoeven Continues to Call Attention to Crisis at the Southern Border

Senator Pressing President Biden to Strictly Enforce the Law, Utilize Border Security Funding Congress Has Provided to Stop Illegal Immigration Crisis

WASHINGTON – Senator John Hoeven this week joined his Senate Republican colleagues in calling on the Biden administration to enforce the law and secure the southern border. The senator called attention to the continuing crisis occurring as a result of President Biden’s failed border policies. As of June, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has encountered 1.789 million individuals attempting to illegally cross the southern border in Fiscal Year (FY) 2023, which already exceeds the total illegal crossings in FY2021 and is on pace to match the record numbers in FY2022. To stop this crisis, and combat cartels from trafficking people and drugs into the U.S, Hoeven is pressing the Biden administration to:

  • Reinstate the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) or Remain in Mexico Policy, which required people seeking asylum at the southern border to wait in Mexico while their case was adjudicated.
  • Strictly Enforce the Safe Third Country Agreements requiring that those coming from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala seek asylum there first, otherwise be returned to await the outcome of their claims. 
  • Resume construction of the border wall at the nation’s southern border and put in place the technology, infrastructure and personnel needed to secure the border, utilizing funding Congress has already appropriated.

“The Biden administration won’t enforce the law because they want an open border policy,” said Hoeven. “The media, the public and everybody has to ask the Biden administration if they acknowledge that the cartels are bringing people across the border illegally and why are they allowing these international criminal networks to set up in the U.S. Why is the Biden administration following a policy that allows that, and not using the funding they have right now or implementing policies like Remain in Mexico and the Third Safe Country Agreements to stop it?” 

This comes as the latest in Hoeven’s efforts to support Border Patrol and draw attention to the southern border crisis. Over the last several years, Hoeven has met with North Dakota National Guard members in Del Rio and Eagle Pass, Texas to highlight their mission in support of Customs and Border Protection operations. The senator has also reviewed border operations in El Paso, the Rio Grande Valley and Brownsville, Texas, and traveled with a bipartisan congressional delegation to Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia and Guatemala to outline the need to work with these nations to stop illegal immigration and prevent human and drug trafficking.

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