Mr. President, the border crisis is not on us, it’s on you

With the stroke of a pen, President Biden could reverse his disastrous executive orders that facilitated this border crisis in the first place, or meaningfully work with House Republicans to pass a strong border security bill.

“On my first day in office I introduced a comprehensive plan to fix our immigration system, secure the border,… and so much more,” said President Joe Biden during his State of the Union address Thursday night. It had taken him over 30 minutes to mention the No. 1 issue that Americans are concerned about today.  

Let me be clear. This policy-driven crisis continues because the Biden administration is unwilling to publicly dissuade migrants from illegally crossing the border and enforce immigration laws already on the books.  

President Biden went on to say he is “ready to fix it [the border crisis]”, insinuating Republicans are the ones standing in the way of securing our southern border. 

Instead of blaming Republicans, who have tried to secure the border for years, despite nearly unanimous Democratic opposition, the administration should be honest with the American people and admit that this border crisis did not happen in a vacuum. If President Biden wants to list the actions that he has taken since his first day in office, Americans deserve a full accounting. Here’s what he left out.  

Some of the very first acts of the Biden administration were intended to systematically eliminate the border security policies of the Trump administration. This includes eliminating a program that forces migrants to remain in Mexico while they wait for their immigration case to be heard and using executive orders to halt the construction of the border wall. The results of these unilateral actions were predictable — a dramatic and overwhelming surge of illegal immigration, with migrants being paroled into the country in large numbers.  

President Biden clearly communicated to the world on Day One of his presidency that our borders are wide-open. Drug cartels and other bad actors received the message and have taken advantage generating billions of dollars smuggling both drugs and migrants across the porous border. This administration’s policies have overwhelmed our brave Border Patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection officers on the frontlines, diverting them from their primary missions and making Americans and them less safe.  

The numbers don’t lie. Since President Biden took office, there have been over 8.3 million illegal crossings nationwide, including 1.7 million known “gotaways” who evaded Border Patrol. These astonishing numbers don’t even include the presumed millions of migrants who successfully avoided being detected.  

Furthermore, over 54,366 pounds of fentanyl have been interdicted coming across our southern border since January 2021. That is enough to wipe out the entire human population and doesn’t even account for all the illicit drugs that go undetected at our borders and later seep into our local communities. 

As chairman of the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee this Congress, my job to is make sure the Department of Homeland Security has enough resources to secure the border and enforce immigration law. We must be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and ensure we are not wasting money by supporting bad policies that harm our fellow Americans. 

Last year, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas took a different approach as he sat in front of my Subcommittee and requested a budget on behalf of President Biden that was full of gimmicks designed to mask the true cost of protecting the Homeland. 

This proposal included funding that cut border security spending by 10 percent, reduced detention beds by 26 percent, and excluded any funding for the wall or other physical barriers at a time when we are seeing record high illegal immigration.  

Instead, the administration’s proposal included a $4.7 billion dollar slush fund to simply “manage” the unchecked surge of illegal migrants coming across our border after the fact, further facilitating their failed policies.

Despite this approach from the White House, the Fiscal Year 2024 House Appropriations Homeland Security bill I authored provides funding to build the wall, hire additional Border Patrol agents, bolster border technology, and force the Biden administration to finally address the border security crisis. In September, this bill passed the House of Representatives with bipartisan support.  

Contrary to his newfound “tough talk” on the border, President Biden’s actions again spoke louder than his words. The Biden administration publicly threatened to veto my bill.  

With the stroke of a pen, President Biden could reverse his disastrous executive orders that facilitated this border crisis in the first place, or meaningfully work with House Republicans to pass a strong border security bill. Instead, as he faces an election, he comes to Congress with more words and misplaced blame. So no, Mr. President, the border crisis is not on us, it’s on you. 

Dave Joyce represents the 14th District of Ohio and serves as the chairman of the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee.