Site icon The Daily Signal

Amid Surge in Illegal Alien Encounters, GOP Senators Push ‘Secure the Border’ Bill

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks to press.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas—seen here Sept. 13 in the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington—is calling on the Senate to vote on and pass the Secure the Border Act of 2023. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Illegal alien encounters on America’s southern border approached record highs between Friday and Monday.  

In just four days, Customs and Border Protection has encountered more than 35,000 illegal aliens on the U.S. border with Mexico, according to Fox News reporter Bill Melugin.  

When you do the math, “that’s almost 9,000 every single day,” Melugin reported Tuesday.  

The surge of illegal aliens at the southern border comes shortly after Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, introduced the Secure the Border Act of 2023. The House passed the bill in May, largely along party lines, and now Cruz is calling on his Senate colleagues to support the legislation.  

“[President Joe] Biden’s open borders are an invitation for the cartels to brutalize children, to assault women, to overrun our communities with illegal aliens, and to flood this country with narcotics and fentanyl that kill over 100,000 people per year,” Cruz said in a statement.  

“This bill would stop the Biden Border Crisis dead in its tracks by building the wall, ratcheting up asylum standards, increasing the number of Border Patrol agents, and implementing effective border security policies,” the Texas lawmaker added.  

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, announced his support for the Secure the Border Act in a statement Tuesday, saying, “Every state in the nation, including Iowa, is now a border state,” adding that “border security is national security.”

“Our bill presents commonsense solutions that will protect Americans by putting a stop to the border crisis,” Grassley said.

If passed by the Senate and signed into law, the 211-page bill would address the border crisis, according to Cruz’s office, by:  

More than half of all Senate Republicans are publicly backing the Secure The Border Act, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky; Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee; Tom Cotton of Arkansas; J.D. Vance of Ohio; Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran of Kansas; Deb Fischer of Nebraska; Eric Schmitt of Missouri; Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt of Alabama; John Kennedy of Louisiana; Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott of South Carolina; John Thune of South Dakota; John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota; Mike Lee of Utah; Ted Budd and Thom Tillis of North Carolina; Steve Daines of Montana; Cynthia Lummis and John Barrasso of Wyoming; Todd Young and Mike Braun of Indiana; Ron Johnson of Wisconsin; John Cornyn of Texas, and Grassley.

A schedule for a Senate vote on the border security bill has not yet been announced.  

Have an opinion about this article? To sound off, please email letters@DailySignal.com, and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state. 

Exit mobile version