According to the latest census data, 396,192 people call Wichita home. In December 2023 nearly that many people, 371,036, attempted to cross our borders, but were stopped and processed by the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP). And in January of this year, southwest border encounters increased 124% compared to January 2021. Add in the number of known and unknown gotaways – those people who evaded CBP – and the number of people illegally entering our country every month jumps even higher.
The crisis at our border continues to spiral out of control and affects every corner of our country. But it shouldn’t be this way.
Last month, my colleagues and I went on a fact-finding mission to Eagle Pass, Texas, to see firsthand the lawlessness and destruction at the southern border – all happening because of President Biden’s failed policies and his administration’s willful neglect of the law. Our live press conference was even interrupted when several migrants tried to illegally cross into the United States. These migrants were completely undeterred by the cameras, members of Congress and even Border Patrol. This is what happens when bad policies are enacted and good ones lack enforcement.
Typically, the Del Rio sector of the border we visited sees 1,400 crossings per day. In a major push over the Christmas holiday, crossings jumped to 2,400 per day for about 10 days. To process this influx, agents had to be pulled from the field, leaving a 240-mile sector of the border unpatrolled and open for drug smugglers, illegal migrants, and terrorists. These are shocking numbers with dangerous consequences.
More shocking, though, is that in the days leading up to and during our visit, crossings plummeted to 200 per day, demonstrating that it is possible to get the border crisis under control. This makes the deliberate actions of Biden and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas flouting the law and keeping the border open even more shameful.
Through their neglect of the law, they have imperiled our national security.
According to the House Homeland Security Committee, so far in fiscal year 2024, Customs and Border Patrol arrested 11,958 aliens with criminal convictions nationwide, including 157 known gang members, 24 of those being MS13 members. More than 18,750 Chinese nationals have been encountered at the southwest border this fiscal year, breaking a new record in December.
In January, CBP seized nearly 1,800 pounds of fentanyl coming across the southwest border alone – part of the 6,778 pounds of fentanyl that has been seized since Oct. 1, 2023. That’s enough to kill more than one billion people. Even more alarming, officials estimate that what’s seized is only about 5-10% of the total amount of fentanyl smuggled into our country across the southern border.
Yet, somehow, some of my colleagues fail to grasp the gravity of the situation – the Senate recently tried to advance a border package that didn’t go far enough to secure the border.
Despite some positive provisions, the Senate’s proposal would have ceded even more authority to a failing Secretary who refuses to uphold the law, cemented Biden’s dangerous catch-and-release policy and pretended that the crisis only needs emergency authorization once we reach 5,000 illegal crossings a day. Perhaps more of my colleagues and administration officials should visit Eagle Pass to see the brazenness of the illegal immigrants – and the human suffering that has resulted from allowing the cartels and gangs to control our borders.
Long before the House impeached Secretary Mayorkas a few weeks ago, the House passed the strongest border security legislation in decades to address the crisis, H.R. 2. And right after its passage the Senate should have considered this legislation, but since then, the situation at the border has only further deteriorated.
We know the policies in H.R. 2 work. As Speaker Mike Johnson said at our press conference in Eagle Pass, if the president would simply reinstate the Remain in Mexico Policy from the Trump administration, it could reduce illegal immigration by 70% or more.
Instead, President Biden has taken more than 60 decisive actions – including executive orders –that have created this crisis. In January, a reporter asked, “Mr. President, on the border. Have you done everything you can do with executive authority?” We know for a fact he could reverse his disastrous executive orders, but he’s chosen to create this crisis. “I’ve done all I can do,” he responded. But now, as November looms, he’s weighing an election- year gimmick. Americans shouldn’t be fooled by this bait-and-switch action – we know that if elected again, he would go right back to the same failed policies of the past three years that have caused massive illegal migration and unprecedented levels of deadly drugs flowing into our country.
To truly secure our borders and protect our nation, we need real policy change – not just lip service from politicians who want to use this crisis for political points in an election year. I will continue to fight for safe and secure borders on behalf of concerned Kansans and Americans – because every state is a border state under the Biden/ Mayorkas border crisis.
Ron Estes, one of only a handful of engineers in Congress, worked in the aerospace, energy and manufacturing sectors before representing Kansas’ 4th Congressional District since 2017. He is a fifth-generation Kansan, former state treasurer, and serves on the House Committee on Ways and Means, Budget Committee, and Education and the Workforce Committee.
