Northwest PA News

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On May 11, U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), co-chair of the Northern Border Security Caucus, released the following statement after the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2, The Secure The Border Act.

"House Republicans are making good on yet another promise to the American people: we are securing the border," Kelly said. "The Secure The Border Act takes a serious step toward curbing the surge of illegal immigration at our Southern border. President Biden has flat out ignored this crisis during his first two years in office. His rhetoric and open-border policies have led us to where we are today. Along the Northern border, apprehensions are up 1,500% from the day President Biden took office. Now, the Secure The Border Act will take the next steps toward keeping this country safe and restoring order at our borders."

 BACKGROUND

H.R. 2, The Secure The Border Act, is the House Republican plan to curb the surge of illegal immigration at both the Southern and Northern borders. The Secure the Border Act of 2023 has two fundamental goals: secure the border and combat illegal immigration. The bill does the following:

• Force the Biden Administration to restart construction of the border wall
• Deploy technology to the southern and northern border
• Increase the number of Border Patrol agents and provide bonus pay
• Require transparency regarding illegal crossings from the Department of Homeland Security
• Strengthen current law to protect unaccompanied children from human trafficking
• End catch and release
• End abuse of executive immigration authority
• Strengthen and streamline the asylum process

 The Border Crisis By The Numbers

Since President Biden has taken office:

• There have been OVER 5 MILLION illegal crossings of our southern border.
• More than 1.3 MILLION illegal immigrants have evaded apprehension at our southern border, according to Border Patrol sources.
• CBP has seized over 14,000 pounds of fentanyl coming across the Southwest border—Enough to kill over 3.1 billion people.
• In March 2023, fentanyl seizures increased 25% compared to the month prior.
• In just the first six months of FY23, 80 people whose names appear on the terrorist watchlist were stopped trying to cross the southern border. This total is more than the encounters in all FY17, FY18, FY19, FY20, and FY21 combined. 
• There were 98 terror watchlist arrests in FY22.
• In March, Border Patrol agents apprehended an individual on the terrorist watch list for the second month in a row. 
• Homeland Security Investigations are now estimating that cartels are now making $13 BILLION a year smuggling illegal immigrants into the U.S. 
• During Biden’s first 100 days in office, he took 94 executive actions on immigration, including halting the construction of the border wall. 
• In August 2022, Biden and his Administration decided to make the border crisis WORSE by formally ending former President Trump’s successful ‘Remain in Mexico’ program.
• The Biden Administration has actively worked to end Title 42 and incentivize a worsening influx of illegal migrants at our southern border. 
• Northern border migrant encounters in 2023 are already more than 2020 & 2021 *COMBINED.*

Original source can be found here.