U.S. SENATE – U.S.Senator Steve Daines cosponsored the “Secure the Border Act” to resume construction on the border wall, tighten asylum standards, criminalize visa overstays, increase the number of Border Patrol Agents, defund organizations receiving tax dollars to help traffic illegal aliens, prohibit Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from using its app to assist illegal aliens and more. The bill has passed the House of Representatives as H.R. 2 and is the most comprehensive border security bill in decades.
“President Biden’s dangerous open border has allowed Montana to become a northern border state with a southern border crisis,” said Daines.“On Day One Biden rolled back commonsense policies and Montana communities have been paying the price ever since. In fact, we just found out August set a record for the highest number of encounters at the border in 2023 with nearly a quarter million. Since the President won’t, I’m working with my colleagues to do everything we can to stem the flow of deadly drugs and crime into our country.”
The “Secure the Border Act” enacts effective border security solutions, including:
· Requiring the DHS to resume border wall construction.
· Increasing the number of Border Patrol Agents.
· Tightening asylum standards by restricting asylum to only aliens who present at ports of entry and by requiring aliens to prove they are “more likely than not” to qualify for their asylum claim.
· Narrowing DHS’s power to unilaterally grant parole to illegal aliens.
· Criminalizing visa overstays by making the first offense a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and the second offense a felony punishable by up to a $2,000 fine and up to two years imprisonment.
· Stopping organizations from using tax dollars to transport or lodge illegal aliens and provide illegal aliens with lawyers.
· Restricting DHS from using its CBP One app to welcome illegal aliens into the country.
· Requiring employers to use E-Verify.
· Ensuring Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has access to the criminal history databases of all countries of origin and transit so that CBP is aware of the criminal history of illegal aliens encountered at the southern border.
The full text is available here.
Last week, the Administration announced that August saw a record number of encounters on the southern border for 2023.
Daines has been working to combat President Biden’s open-border policies, read more HERE.