Republicans will first seek to tackle the border crisis after the midterms if they win back the majority, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told CNN.
Republican lawmakers’ first bill will seek to create more stringent border policies and enhance enforcement, he told CNN Monday.
The plan would involve bringing back a number of Trump-era immigration policies President Joe Biden sought to reverse, including “Remain in Mexico,” which forces certain illegal migrants to await court proceedings in Mexico.
“I think the first thing you’ll see is a bill to control the border first. You’ve got to get control over the border,” McCarthy told CNN.
McCarthy emphasized the national security concerns of open borders after Border Patrol agents caught 98 illegal migrants in fiscal year 2022 whose names were on the terror watchlist.
He also emphasized the need to combat the cartels’ operations and fentanyl smuggling as the drug kills tens of thousands of Americans each year.
“It’s very difficult to get on that and we caught them coming across the border just this year. The White House tried to keep that secret,” McCarthy added.
Illegal migration has surged under Biden’s watch after he attempted to roll back the policies previously used for deportation and enforcement. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) encountered a new record of roughly 2.3 million migrants at the southern border in fiscal year 2022.
“You first do a very frontal attack on China to stop the poison from coming, you control your borders and take control of it down here, you provide the resources that the border agents need, but you also provide to make sure the cartels aren’t controlling the border in the background,” McCarthy said.
“There are a number of provisions that we have that we will move forward on. And then we’ll also make sure that fentanyl, in time, anybody that wants to move it, you can prosecute them for the death penalty because that’s exactly what it’s doing,” McCarthy added.
Android Users, Click Here To Download The Free Press App And Never Miss A Story. Follow Us On Facebook Here Or Twitter Here.