House GOP Introduces Bill to Restart Border Wall Construction, Bolster Security

House Republicans are taking action to strengthen security along the U.S. southern border with their new Border Reinforcement Act. The bill would require President Joe Biden’s administration to resume construction on the border wall between the United States and Mexico, which was halted upon taking office in January 2021. The federal government has already paid for the barrier, and since construction was stopped, the materials have been lying along the border unused, costing the United States at least $72 million.

The Border Reinforcement Act would also require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide monthly reports on illegal encounters. Republicans accuse DHS of trying to hide such data from the American people through late-night document dumps and other means.

With an unprecedented influx of illegal immigrants along the southern border, Republicans have made it clear that they blame Biden and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for the situation, which they dub the “Biden border crisis.”

Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) wrote in a New York Post op-ed that Republicans were trying to address the border “because Biden never will.”

“Republicans made a Commitment to America last year to secure our borders and protect our communities,” Green wrote. The legislation, which Green said was “crafted with the insight of those on this crisis’ precipice,” was designed to keep this promise, he said.

“The Biden administration has abandoned our agents and sent the message that the laws concerning our sovereign borders are merely suggestions,” Green continued, noting that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has seized enough fentanyl along the southern border to kill 2.5 billion people—around a third of the entire human population.

“The terrifying part,” Green said, is that these are just the drug busts that are known. But he cited federal estimates showing that the drugs seized at the border account for no more than 10 percent of drugs being trafficked across the border.

Biden and Mayorkas, Green said, have “made clear they have no intention of securing our borders or restoring law and order. That’s why the committee has spent endless hours meticulously crafting real solutions to do it.”

Additionally, the bill would nullify the use of a mobile application called CBP One, which allows people to register for asylum in the United States. Republicans believe that the app would further spur illegal immigration.

“Our goal is to give agents the tools they need to secure our border, not technological Band-Aids that incentivize more illegal immigration, such as the CBP One app,” Green said. The Biden administration, Green added, “is using the app as a tool to allow illegal aliens to schedule appointments at ports of entry and be expeditiously released into the country’s interior.”

The Border Reinforcement Act is a crucial step in securing our borders and protecting our communities. Let’s hope that the Biden administration will take this issue seriously and work with Republicans to find a solution.