Tennessee U.S. Senator and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bill Hagerty (R-TN) joined the effort to secure the southern border by introducing companion legislation in the Senate to the House-passed Secure the Border Act of 2023.
Hagerty, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), along with nine other Senate Republican colleagues, on Monday introduced the companion legislation into the U.S. Senate.
The Secure the Border Act of 2023 passed the House of Representatives as House Resolution (HR) 2 in May.
The Secure the Border Act attempts to reinstate wall construction, tighten asylum requirements, make visa overstays a crime, increase the number of Border Patrol Agents, and defund Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that use tax dollars to assist in the trafficking of illegal aliens. Furthermore, the bill forbids the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from using its app to resettle illegal aliens.
According to Hagerty, it pleases him to join this effort to protect the U.S. and curb illegal immigration created by the Biden administration.
“The Biden Administration has created an unprecedented humanitarian and national security crisis on our southern border. This has fueled a flood of fentanyl coming into our country, which is predominantly driving the drug overdoses killing more than 100,000 Americans per year, as well as dangerous and tragic criminal activity like human trafficking and smuggling. That’s why I’m joining Senator Ted Cruz and 9 Senate Republican colleagues in introducing the Secure the Border Act of 2023. I’m pleased to co-sponsor this legislation to reverse the Biden Administration’s policies and require comprehensive border security to protect our nation and curb illegal immigration,” Hagerty said.
Cruz said that the U.S. has a wide-open southern border because of the Biden administration.
“Under Joe Biden, we have a wide-open southern border. The Biden Border Crisis has created the largest illegal immigration crisis in our nation’s history. 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. 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,” Cruz said.
The legislation also aims to narrow DHS’s power to grant parole to illegal aliens unilaterally, criminalizes 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. In addition, it requires employers to use E-Verify and ensure 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.
Numbers USA and the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) have also endorsed the Secure the Border Act.
“Since his first day in office, President Biden has signaled to illegal aliens and open-border advocates that his administration will not enforce our immigration laws and that our southern border will be open. The Secure the Border Act will immediately restart construction of the border wall, provide border enforcement agencies the manpower, technology and infrastructure they need to do their jobs, and end the exploitation of unaccompanied alien children at the hands of criminal cartels. Unlike the Biden Administration’s preferred approach of abusing current law and quickly processing illegal aliens into the country, the Secure the Border Act will enact meaningful policy changes that are needed. It is a critical piece of legislation that will secure our borders and end the humanitarian crisis that this administration has willfully created,” FAIR President Dan Stein said.
Leader Mitch McConnell (R- KY), and Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Tom Cotton (R-AR), JD Vance (R-OH), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), John Kennedy (R-LA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John Thune (R-SD), John Hoeven (R-ND), Katie Britt (R-AL), Mike Lee (R-UT), Ted Budd (R-NC), Steve Daines (R-MT), Tim Scott (R-SC), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Todd Young (R-IN), John Barrasso (R-WY), Mike Braun (R-IN), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), and Ron Johnson (R-WI) are now all co-sponsors on the legislation.
The Tennessee Star reached out to Hagerty for comment but did not receive a reply before press time.
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Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star, The Star News Network, The Arizona Sun Times, and The Tennessee Star. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Bill Hagerty” by Bill Hagerty.
