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Congressman John Joyce: We must stop de facto amnesty at our southern border

October 6, 2020
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Congressman John Joyce: We must stop de facto amnesty at our southern border
Washington Examiner

In January, amid the government shutdown, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., accused President Trump of "manufacturing a crisis" when it comes to the southern border.

It was my belief at the time that both Schumer and Pelosi were wrong. And after the trip I took to Yuma, Ariz., with a group of other House Republicans last week, I am now armed with the firsthand experiences to prove it.

My colleagues across the aisle had already been proven wrong about the crisis at the southern border even before I headed to Arizona last week. In March, more than 103,000 undocumented immigrants crossed the border, a 12-year high. This news even prompted Jeh Johnson, a secretary of Homeland Security under President Barack Obama, to describe the situation as "a crisis."

Despite the overwhelming evidence, there are still many Americans who do not fully understand the dire circumstances facing the Border Patrol agents trying to protect our sovereignty.

So what did I see on my trip to the southern border that I wish the entire country could have? First, I saw a need for physical barriers and more manpower. The areas of the Yuma border that we observed lack substantial fencing or wall. Instead, the United States and Mexico are separated only by a knee deep section of the Colorado River, which, under the direction of the cartels, is easily traversed by large groups of migrants.

These large groups are then often used as diversions. While regulations require Border Patrol agents to spend hours back at their stations filling out processing paperwork on the large groups of migrants they apprehend, smugglers can run vast amounts of drugs through the areas law enforcement officers have been forced to vacate.

Every Border Patrol agent we talked to said a 30-foot wall would help curb the number of large migrant groups entering the country and free officials up from administrative duties to work more on apprehensions of the dangerous criminals who are smuggling drugs across the border.

The agents also agreed that there is no way they can secure the border properly if they do not increase their numbers. But the somber realization about both fixes outlined above is that they deal only with apprehending those coming across our border illegally. The real problem occurs after an illegal immigrant is detained.

The United States is used to spending a massive amount of resources trying to catch those coming over the southern border, but what we are not used to, and are now facing, is a situation where many migrants want to be caught.

They know that if they come over with a child and claim asylum, they are legally required to be released into the United States within 20 days, and according to the agents we spoke to, many are released within 48 hours. Asylum cases are now so backlogged that these migrants can stay here for up to five years before getting a deportation hearing, and many do not show up to their hearings at all.

Illegal immigrants are using children as fast-passes to permanent entry. In some cases, these children are not even with their legitimate parents or guardians.

The number of illegal immigrants pouring into our country is skyrocketing because the cartels have figured out that our immigration laws allow for de facto amnesty. Until we make the necessary legislative changes, this problem will persist.

We need to strengthen the asylum system by tightening the "credible fear" standard, ensure unaccompanied immigrant children can be quickly and safely returned home to their families in their home countries, and fix the Flores settlement to allow children and parents to be sheltered in custody together.

Thankfully, Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., has put forward the Fix the Immigration Loopholes Act, which makes all those statutory changes.

Let's be clear, anyone who does not support this needed legislation is content with the status quo of an open southern border. As I return to Washington, I recognize the significant need for bipartisan solutions to address the very real crisis. During my recent trip, I saw overwhelming evidence that we must fix these problems now.

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Issues:National Security