The Status Quo at the Border Must Change
By Sen. John Thune
For two years now, a crisis has been raging along our southern border. 4.5 million illegal immigrants have been apprehended at the border, and another 1.2 million migrants have evaded capture while entering the United States. At the same time, the number of individuals on the terrorist watch list arrested at the border and the number of migrants who die attempting to enter the country have reached record highs. The border is clearly in crisis, but until recently, President Biden acted as if this crisis didn’t exist.
Two years ago the border was significantly more secure. It took time, but through a series of commonsense measures that included enforcing the law, stopping border crossers, and discouraging illegal immigration in the first place, the previous administration made real progress to attain operational control of the nearly 2,000-mile long border. But, on his first day in office, President Biden scrapped many of his predecessor’s policies. The effect of his actions was to declare that the United States’ border was effectively open. Unsurprisingly, a sea change occurred and border crossings shot up.
While the border crisis has overwhelmed border patrol and local resources in border communities, its impact reaches across the country. Influxes of illegal immigrants have strained the resources of cities from Denver to New York. Drugs, especially fentanyl, have come across the border and taken lives in communities across the country. In fact, fentanyl overdose is the leading cause of death for U.S. adults ages 18-45. Here in South Dakota, about as far from the southern border as you can get, the Minnehaha County sheriff estimates that 90 percent of fentanyl and methamphetamines in our state comes from Mexico, which recently surpassed China as the leading source of fentanyl.
To stem the tide of illegal immigrants and illegal drugs entering our country, we must secure the border. This depends foremost on the president being willing to enforce the laws currently on the books. Without executive leadership, even new laws to secure the border will fail to meaningfully deter individuals from making a dangerous journey that lines the pockets of coyotes and cartels. As long as illegal pathways are viable, we can expect these recent trends to continue.
We also need to ensure that legitimate, legal immigration is a realistic option for those fleeing persecution, pursuing the American dream, or seeking seasonal economic opportunity. I’ve repeatedly introduced legislation to open up opportunities for individuals to work in the United States when employers can’t find enough domestic labor. These programs help fill the need for supplemental workers in South Dakota, where unemployment is 2.3 percent and many business owners will tell you they just can’t find enough local workers. Ensuring our visa programs are agile enough to deliver labor relief to local businesses is one way we can enable economic growth through legal immigration.
The status quo at the border is neither safe nor humane, not for our country and not for those entering illegally. I hope the president’s visit to the border last month, his first ever, has awakened him to this reality. For our national security, public safety, and the safety of immigrants, we need to uphold the rule of law and secure the border.
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We are tired of lip service about the border from all politicians. Our do nothing congress has one skill, wasting our money. You voted for the wasteful inflation reduction act but provided little to fund border issues. Congress needs to immediately activate our military to the border to stop this invasion. We have immense military capacity that would benefit from a deployment. Write all the columns you want but start providing solutions.
Amen.
The American Way – force. It won’t work. Americans want drugs bad enough that they’ll get here no matter what Congress does.
thanks for your perspective senator. i look forward to seeing what transpires.
We already knew all of this. Talking about the border is not accomplishing anything. The President by now quite likely does not even remember being to the border, AND he did not even tour the worst areas. We cannot survive another 2 years under this weak, senile President so if Congress cannot do anything to oust this person, all of the members may as well disband and go home.
The sky is falling!
#SSDD
This has “was written by a staffer” all over it. John isn’t up for election for quite a while, the GOP is safe in SD, who is this message for? I wish John had a sliver of problem solving skill instead of all this political division skill. Propose an actual fix instead of just complaining about issue after issue week after week. Post a 10 page solution bill to this, however, we know that won’t happen because what would you complain about every 2 years? They all wait for these 10,000 page omnibus bills where the only people left happy are the legislators and all of us constituents are left saying “wtf”?
The political climate needs to change in this country, it was never meant to be this form of force a super majority to get something done, there is supposed to be compromise to govern.
Just returned from a trip to Florida. Amazed at the number of Spanish speakers working in motels, as repairmen in resorts, as delivery men, in convenience stores, in all service industries I encountered. The people who are doing the work, providing services, in the South and Midwest seemed to be predominately recent immigrants. Overall, they provided service with a smile…a pleasure to meet them as they worked. What exactly is the problem??? I don’t think these people are causing any problem at all. Seems to me they are solving a serious labor supply problem.