Will the Southern Border Ever Be Secure Again?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns the open southern border. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy promised the American people that he would hold hearing on the border at the border if Republicans gained the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. Today, he made good on his promise when he took several freshman House Republicans to the border.

Those traveling with McCarthy to the Tucson sector were Juan Ciscomani (R-Arizona), Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Oregon), Jen Kiggans (R-Virginia), and Derrick Van Orden (R-Wisconsin). The Tucson sector stretches across most of Arizona. This was McCarthy’s fourth trip in two years, according to Virginia Allen at The Daily Signal.

Customs and Border Protection agents briefed the congressional group about the border crisis and also gave them an aerial view of the border. One of the problems discussed during the briefing was the fentanyl crossing the border and killing Americans. 

Chavez-DeRemer said that people in Oregon are suffering from the fentanyl crisis even though Oregon is a long way from the border. “We had our largest drug bust in Oregon’s history … this past year.” She added that the seized drugs could “have killed 4.5 million people.” The delegates visiting the border all ran on securing the border, and they got to see how open the border is.

The delegation’s trip to the border comes just a couple [of] weeks after Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., filed new articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, saying in a press release that Mayorkas “is the chief architect of the migration and drug invasion at our southern border,” a sentiment which some lawmakers echoed at the border Thursday.

“It’s the policies of the Biden administration that have led to this crisis,” Van Orden said during the press conference at the border Thursday.

According to Customs and Border Protection reported that in fiscal year 2022 (end Sept. 30) a record 2.3 million land encounters with migrants at the southern border.” During the first four months of fiscal year 2023, there were more than “870,000 total encounters between Oct. 1 and Jan. 31.” The encounters with illegal aliens are on track to be more than in the previous year.

In addition to migrants crossing the border illegally, CBP seized “over 14,000 pounds of fentanyl in fiscal year 2022 and more than 12,000 pounds between October and the end of January.”

Although the Biden White House called the congressional visits to the border “partisan publicity stunts,” McCarthy kept his promise to the voters. He wanted “to force Biden & the Dems to pay attention to the crisis they created.”

McCarthy’s plan worked because House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries plans to visit the border in Laredo, Texas, tomorrow with Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas). The two leaders and other congressional members were in Midland, Texas, on Wednesday for a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.