Senator Thune’s Weekly Column: A Secure Southern Border

A Secure Southern Border
By Sen. John Thune

Things look very different at the southern border these days than they did last year. President Trump wasted no time ending the chaos he inherited. Illegal immigrant encounters at the southern border have dropped precipitously, falling as low as 7,832 migrants in July. Border Patrol agents are on the line enforcing our laws; the wall is being built; and criminal illegal aliens are being arrested, detained, and deported.

Compare that to the southern border under President Biden. Customs and Border Protection was encountering more than 100,000 illegal immigrants per month – and sometimes many more. Many of those individuals were ultimately allowed to take up residence in the United States. Border communities, and even places far from the border, were overwhelmed by the influx of illegal immigrants.

Border Patrol’s El Paso Sector is emblematic of the progress that’s been made under President Trump. The sector chief there says they currently see about 40 to 50 people crossing per day, compared to 2,700 per day not long ago. The number of known gotaways – illegal immigrants who Border Patrol saw but was unable to apprehend – has fallen to nine per day. It was 400 per day last summer. And one has to wonder how dangerous some of these individuals were who were avoiding law enforcement, considering that a lot of illegal immigrants – encouraged by catch-and-release policies – actually sought out Border Patrol during the Biden years.

Today, the situation at the southern border has been turned around. We’ve made an incredible amount of progress, and we need to sustain that progress for the long term. That’s why Republicans made a generational investment in border security this summer. We provided funding to finish the border wall, hire more Border Patrol and ICE agents, and expand detention space and deportation capacity. We also provided funding to hire more immigration judges to address the massive backlog in immigration cases. All of these resources will help to secure the gains we’ve made and maintain the security of America’s borders.

The chaos at the southern border under the Biden administration was a danger to everyone. Open border policies were an invitation to criminals, terrorists, and other dangerous individuals to enter our country. It placed an incredible burden on Border Patrol agents to deal with the influx. And it put illegal immigrants at the mercy of human smugglers and the cartels, who profited off of the open southern border.

We have a responsibility to keep America safe, and that starts with security at our borders. President Trump takes that responsibility seriously. He acted swiftly to end the chaos and restore order. And Congress has acted to support that mission and make the success we’ve seen these last few months the new normal. That work continues, and I’m grateful to the men and women on the front lines carrying out the important work of enforcing the law and keeping America safe.

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