Rounds, Britt and Colleagues Introduce Legislation to Strengthen Border Security
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and their Senate colleagues introduced a package of four pieces of legislation aimed at sealing and securing the southern border, cracking down on asylum abuse, keeping American communities safe and eliminating the ongoing border crisis.
“Our immigration system has been broken for years, but the Biden administration’s policies have created a crisis at our southern border,” said Rounds. “Congress must take action if we are ever to find a long-term solution to strengthen our borders, fix the current border crisis and make certain our legal immigration system adequately meets our workforce needs. I am pleased to join Senator Britt on these bills, which are a step in the right direction to protecting against illegal immigration and stopping those who wish to do us harm. I will continue to work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to eliminate the crisis once and for all.”
“There is an unprecedented humanitarian and national security crisis at our southern border,” said Britt. “This is a direct, avoidable result of the Biden Administration’s dangerously weak policies. Hardworking parents across our nation want their children to grow up in safe, strong communities, so that they can reach their full potential and live their American Dream. This legislation would help secure that dream for families in every corner of our country.”
The first piece of the package is a resolution that would act as a straightforward acknowledgment that there is a crisis on the southern border.
The second piece of the package is a bill, the “Keep Our Communities Safe Act,” to stop the Obama-Biden catch-and-release policy that requires the federal government to release illegal aliens into the United States’ interior after detaining them for six months if no other country accepts them for deportation.
The Asylum Abuse Reduction Act, the third piece of the package, is a four-pronged bill to fix America’s broken asylum process, which is causing chaos throughout the country’s immigration and border security system. The bill would require migrants to declare asylum at a U.S. embassy or consulate in Mexico or Canada before entering the United States, create a criminal bench warrant for aliens that have failed to appear for immigration court, codify the Trump administration’s Third Country Asylum Rule and establish a fix to the Flores Settlement Agreement.
The final bill in the package is the WALL Act. This bill would appropriate funds to complete building the wall on the southern border. The legislation would pay for this expenditure by eliminating the entitlement benefits and tax credits that illegal immigrants are using and fining those illegally entering the United States.
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