Rep. Chip Roy (TX-21) sent a letter on Wednesday to all his Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives to dispel public “confusion” about H.R. 29 — The Border Safety and Security Act — and to explain why the bill is necessary to end President Biden’s border crisis. The legislation would force the administration to control the flow of illegal migration at our southern border and ensure U.S. immigration laws are enforced.
“These are our laws,” Rep. Roy explained to his fellow legislators.“Whether one agrees with them as a matter of policy or not, these are the laws on the books, and it is imperative that we use all of the tools at our disposal to require DHS to enforce them.”
The Biden administration is encountering and then releasing foreign nationals into the interior as quickly as it can, in violation of both the spirit and the letter of the law. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has released nearly 1.7 million illegal aliens encountered along the southwest border into American communities since he and President Biden took office.
As the letter explains, H.R. 29, the Border Safety and Security Act, “requires the Secretary to detain any migrant claiming asylum until his or her claim has been adjudicated (this is current law), or be turned away similar to the current authority provided by statute 42 U.S. Code § 265, commonly known as ‘Title 42.’”
More specifically, the legislation would
- Provide the Secretary of DHS with authority to turn away migrants who do not have valid entry documents if the Secretary sees it necessary to obtain operational control of the border.
- Require the Secretary to use this “turn away” authority when an illegal immigrant cannot be detained through the pendency of an asylum claim.
“Policy changes are necessary if we actually want to secure the border,”the letter adds, later concluding,“If we do not stop mass releases, we will always have too many people rushing our border to successfully claim any sort of security.”
What we are seeing at our southern border requires a response sufficient to stop the crisis – H.R.29 is an important part of that response.
- Full text of the letter can be found here.
- Full text of the H.R. 29 can be found here.
- A two-page summary of H.R. 29 can be found here.
- An op-ed on the legislation from Rep. Roy and former Texas Congresswoman Mayra Flores can be found here.
