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Washington, D.C. ­– Congressman Nathaniel Moran (TX-01) celebrated the passage of House Resolution (H.Res.) 957, which condemns the Biden Administration’s open borders policies and calls on President Biden to end these policies immediately. The resolution led by Congressman Moran passed the House of Representatives by a 225-187 vote, with fourteen Democrats joining all Republicans in supporting it. The passage of the resolution served as a rare bipartisan rebuke of the national security and public safety crisis caused by Biden Administrations open borders policies and reaffirmed the need to pass meaningful border security legislation like H.R. 2.

 

In addition to the passage of this House resolution, Congressman Moran reaffirmed the need to continuing pushing for passage of H.R. 2 and its key provisions codifying needed border security reforms. Congressman Moran has been focused on the issue of border security since day one of taking office. Last year, 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, which includes the Congressman’s Visa Overstays Penalties Act. His first bill filed in Congress also addressed border security — H.R. 672 the Border Security Investment Act.

 

A transcript of Congressman Moran’s remarks can be found below.

 

“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I stand today in support of House Resolution 957 denouncing the Biden administration's open border policies, condemning the national security and public safety crisis along the Southwestern border, and urging President Biden to end his administration's open border policies. Mr. Speaker, we have a problem at our southern border.

 

“I represent the First District of Texas, which is a rural district located in northeast Texas comprised of 17 counties. It borders Louisiana and Arkansas, and although not physically adjacent to the southern border, my district is directly impacted by the open border policies of the Biden administration, as is every corner of America today. The text of my proposed House Resolution is simple, straightforward, and to the point. It denounces the Biden administration's open border policies. It condemns the national security and public safety crisis caused by these policies. And it urges President Biden to end them immediately.

 

“Why do we need to actually have this resolution on the House today? Well, I'll tell you. It's for two primary reasons. One, because we need to admit that there's a problem. This House needs to admit that there's a problem on the border. And number two, we need to identify the source of the problem itself. Why do we have open borders? It’s because of the policies of this administration. Those two things today, to admit and to identify, will help us lead to a solution from this House body and across the three branches of government. The border numbers do not lie. In fact, they tell a clear story about the depth of the crisis and the proximate cause rooted in the Biden administration policies. Consider that the total number of illegal aliens encountered along the Southern border since President Biden took office exceeds 7 million. At the same time, the Biden administration has released at least 3.3 million of those illegal aliens into the interior of the United States.

 

“This number is larger than the entire population of states like Nevada, Arkansas and Kansas. And in fact, it exceeds the combined populations of Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, and North Dakota together. Additionally, more than 1.7 million getaways and an untold number of unknown illegal getaways have successfully evaded capture by the U.S. Border Patrol along the Southwestern border. 312 illegal aliens on the Terrorist Screening Dataset were encountered along the Southwestern border since President Biden took office. By contrast, consider this, that during the four years of the prior administration, only 11 illegal aliens on that same list were encountered by Border Patrol.

 

“And if we just look in the last quarter, we see how deprived the situation is on the southwestern border. More than 785,000 migrant encounters have been reported just since the beginning of this fiscal year.

 

“And last month, record high, the first time ever in American history 300,000 plus encounters along the southwestern border. In fiscal year ‘23, 27,000 pounds of fentanyl were seized at the southern border. This is almost double what fiscal year ‘22 brought at 14,700 pounds, and it's six times higher than in fiscal year ‘20. We've seen more than 150,000 unaccompanied minors cross over the U.S.-Mexico border. And reports indicate that we have lost contact with over 85,000 of those unaccompanied children.

 

“It used to be that most of the migrants that were coming up to our southern border were from Mexico. But now the landscape has changed. In fiscal year ‘22 migrants from Mexico crossing illegally just made up 33 precent. Now individuals are coming from across the world, more than 150 countries, and many of those countries have direct ties from terrorism. When I was down at Eagle Pass on the border several months ago, we were told that there were at least 27 countries with ties to terrorism that had immigrants come across that southern border that were encountered in the last couple of years. How astounding and how problematic for this country.

 

“Despite the authority that the President has to fix these issues, he simply will not do it. What policies are we talking about? Well, the current administration has ended the migrant protection protocols and the Remain in Mexico policy, which by the way, we're told by Border Security people will end, if we will just reinstate Remain in Mexico could end up to 70 percent of the encounters that we see coming across the border.

 

“The administration also has reinstated catch and release policies. They've suspended asylum cooperative agreements with other nations such as El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. They've ignored existing restraints on the abuse of parole. They've halted necessary border wall construction. They've undermined the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s core mission by preventing them from deporting certain aliens who violate the United States law. They've enabled use of smartphone apps to facilitate the release of border crossers into the United States. And they've redirected Customs and Border Patrol agents to do ICE paperwork processing instead of focusing on law enforcement work. In short, the current administration's policies have led to the numbers that we're seeing today.

 

“Numbers like 2.5 million just in the last fiscal year, 2.3 million in the year before, and 1.74 million in the year before compared to numbers like 400,000 or 500,000 a year under the prior administration. One is too many. But 2.5 million is egregious. It’s led to situations like overcrowded classrooms, children trafficked to do work in industries unsuited for children, unsuited for anybody. Millions in unpaid medical bills in hospitals across the U.S. Overwhelmed first responders in border communities. Homeless veterans who are getting kicked out of shelters in favor of illegal aliens. And even the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans by fentanyl because of the increased fentanyl crisis.

 

“These effects are being felt in rural and metropolitan communities in both blue and red states. As of the beginning of December, the city of Denver had spent over $33 million to house, feed, and educate around 30,000 illegal aliens. Chicago residents are up in arms as well as are New York City residents. Their mayor says that this crisis will “destroy the city.” In 2022, here's the number I was citing for you just a second ago: 73,654 people died from fentanyl overdose in the U.S. This is more than double the amount of deaths in 2019 and the highest in American history.

 

“Assaults on Border Patrol agents doubled just last year. Nevertheless, the Biden administration is doubling down on these open border policies. What will it take for them to wake up? What will it take for us to get back to a solution, to find a solution for the border crisis? There's lots to be done, lots that can be done by this Body and the Senate, and across this government. But it starts with leadership in the White House. Policy leadership in the White House to undo the current open border policies and to return to the policies that were preventing this crisis before.

 

“Mr. Speaker, H.Res. 957 denounces these open border policies, condemns the national security and public crisis that we're seeing today because of that, and urges the President to end those policies immediately. The people of America deserve better. They deserve to have the sovereignty and the geographic borders of this nation protected. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I reserve.”

 

To watch Congressman Moran’s remarks, click HERE.

 

 

 

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