Letter to the Hon. Kamala D. Harris, Vice President of the United States - Rep. Ted Budd Writes VP Kamala Harris Opposing New Open Borders Policy
Letter
Dear Madam Vice President:
I write to follow up on my May 3, 2021 letter where I expressed grave concern about the current crisis on our country's southern border and your lackluster response. Since then, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced that over 180,000 illegal aliens were encountered at the southern border in May. This is a 674% increase from May 2020.
On March 24, 2021, President Biden announced that you were "leading the effort" to address the current crisis on the southern border. I and millions of North Carolinians are dumbfounded that you have refused to visit the border for the last 84 days given your role as President Biden's point person on this crisis.
What is most outrageous about this situation is the Biden-Harris Administration's policy change that no longer detains illegal aliens who are captured illegally crossing the border. Instead, they are processed, given a simple piece of paper requesting that they report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at a later date, and then released into the U.S. mainland. Even Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) called this, "a honor system," and said "this is not the way it's supposed to be."
The Obama Administration allowed unchecked illegal immigration across the southwest border through lax enforcement of notices to appear. This new policy goes much further than the Obama "catch and release" policy. The only conceivable reason to continue this strategy is to artificially lower the number of detainees in federal facilities for political purposes. In reality, this new policy functionally opens our border and allows a free flow of illegal migrants into our country. This is particularly dangerous given the fact that drug cartels and trans-national criminal gangs are known to take advantage of our open border policies to traffic in deadly drugs and innocent human beings.
I again urge your administration to take this crisis seriously by reimplementing proven methods to reduce illegal immigration that were in place during the Trump Administration like constructing a border wall, reinstating the Migrant Protection Protocols, and deporting criminal aliens. This approach has been proven to disincentivize illegal immigration and allow CBP to regain operational control of the border.
Sincerely,
Congressman Ted Budd
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