Press Releases

Washington, D.C. ­– Congressman Nathaniel Moran (TX-01) released the following statement after introducing House Resolution (H.Res.) 957:

“President Biden’s open border policies have caused a national public safety crisis, undermined the rule of law, and brought into question the very sovereignty of the United States. By removing effective Trump-era policies like ‘Remain in Mexico’ and replacing them with new ‘Catch and Release’ policies that allow migrants free roam within the United States once here; by broadening the pathway to grant asylum to almost anyone who applies; and by redirecting the efforts of Border Patrol away from law enforcement in favor of processing immigration paperwork, the Biden Administration has sent a loud and clear message to the rest of the world that the southern border is open.

“These are but a few examples of the open border policies of the Biden Administration that are trampling on our Constitution, and that undermine the value of an orderly immigration process and those who have followed it. My resolution condemns the Biden Administration’s open border policies and makes clear that President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas should be held accountable for their acts and omissions that put at risk the very safety of our Republic and those here legally. Accountability is required.

“We need a strong and vibrant immigration system. But we need one that preserves our sovereignty, provides an orderly process for those coming legally, holds trespassers accountable, upholds the rule of law, protects our citizens from the dangers accompanying these open borders, and is tailored to the needs of our growing workforce. It all starts with securing our border.”

Background:

Congressman Moran was one of only eight original co-sponsors, and the only freshman original co-sponsor, to the toughest border security bill passed in decades — H.R. 2 the Secure the Border Act of 2023. His first bill filed in Congress addressed border security — H.R. 672 the Border Security Investment Act. He has now introduced this resolution condemning the President’s continued failure and refusal to secure our border through his executive policies.

Under Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, more than 8 million illegal aliens have been encountered at our borders, and at least another 1.7 million "gotaways" have evaded Border Patrol. In fiscal year (FY) 23 alone, more than 3.2 million illegal aliens were encountered, a nearly fivefold increase from FY20, the last full year of the Trump Administration.

The daily and monthly encounter records were also both broken multiple times in the last year, with more than 341,000 aliens encountered in September and more than 12,600 encountered on a single day in December 2023.

Since the start of FY21, 317 suspects on the FBI's terrorist watchlist have been encountered attempting to cross the border illegally, compared to just 14 such encounters in the previous four fiscal years. Between October 2021 and October 2023, over 70,000 Special Interest Aliens potentially posing a threat to our national security were encountered.

There are 6.2 million illegal aliens on the non-detained docket, including more than 400,000 known criminal aliens. The asylum backlog surpassed 3 million cases in November, increasing by a million in only one year, and all but ensuring that migrants petitions won’t be heard for years to come.

The Biden Administration has:

• Implemented 94 pro-open border executive actions within its first 100 days, including halting the construction of the border wall.
• Restricted immigration officers’ ability to arrest, detain, and remove aliens who violate U.S. law.
• Terminated Asylum Cooperative Agreements with Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.
• Terminated the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), also known as the Remain in Mexico program. When required to restart MPP by a federal judge, the Biden Administration did so in such a manner as to gut the program’s intended deterrent effect.
• Abused parole authority by releasing illegal aliens en masse into the United States and ignoring the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which requires the detention of asylum seekers for the pendency of their asylum claims.
• Issued a regulation ensuring a non-adversarial asylum process for illegal border crossers, which results in high credible fear grant rates for frivolous asylum claims.

The full text of H.Res. 957 can be found HERE.  

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