Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and fellow GOP senators introduced a bill on March 9 that includes resuming construction of the border wall to secure the nation’s southern border and stop the rising flow of illegal immigrants crossing that boundary into the United States.
“Since President [Joe] Biden took office, more than 4.7 million illegal immigrants—double the population of Idaho—have been encountered at the southern border.
Joining Risch as co-sponsors of the Solving the Border Crisis Act are his fellow senator from Idaho, Mike Crapo, and senators Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Thom Tillis and Ted Budd of North Carolina, and Arkansas’s John Boozman.
The bill also seeks to renew Title 42, a health act from 1944 intended to prevent the spread of communicable diseases. President Donald Trump’s administration enlisted it during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Biden administration continues to use it to turn away asylum seekers at the border.
The authors included in the act pursuing a “sense of Congress resolution” to formally express to the president the opinion of the legislative body that the border crisis is a national security emergency.
Call For ‘Effective’ Leadership
“With my legislation … America would return to reasonable, commonsense border policies that not only stop illegal immigration but deter it,” said Risch.Most of the illegal fentanyl in the United States is manufactured in Mexico by cartels and then trafficked into the United States.
The number of illegal immigrants attempting to cross from Mexico into the United States has been growing.
And over the previous 10 months, “more than 200,000 illegal immigrants have been intercepted along the border” every month.