Senate Republicans Rolling Out Bills Aimed at Solving Biden's Border Crisis
Senate Republicans are set to propose a series of immigration bills Wednesday to address the crisis that has developed on the southern border.
“This is a humanitarian crisis as well as a national security crisis,” Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa told “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday.
“We have trans-national criminal organizations that are running people over the border. We have had 54 countries sending illegal immigrants over our southern border. This is something that has got to stop.”
The congresswoman will be leading Senate Republicans — including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma — and offering a series of bills to try to address the border crisis.
“There’s a growing humanitarian and national security crisis at our southern border, and instead of continuing to recklessly roll back the previous administration’s policies, ones that were helping curb illegal immigration, the Biden administration and Senate Democrats should support these sensible solutions by Senate Republicans that will actually help address the crisis at our border,” Ernst said, according to Fox News.
The Biden administration has refused to label the situation at the border a crisis, so Senate Republicans are trying to solve things in a series of bills.
“Sarah’s Law” is a bill named for Sarah Root, an Iowan who was killed by an illegal immigrant who Immigration and Customs Enforcement failed to detain.
The bill will require illegal immigrants charged with a crime that “kills or seriously injures another person” to be taken into ICE custody.
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A similar bill introduced by Cruz, named for Kate Steinle who was shot and killed by an illegal immigrant, will impose a minimum sentence of five years for any illegal re-entries.
Blackburn will introduce legislation to require the Department of Homeland Security to administer DNA tests to determine if adults traveling with minors are actually family members.
“Drug cartels and gangs are using children to falsely present themselves as family units and seek asylum at our southern border,” Blackburn told Fox.
“These unaccompanied minors are especially vulnerable to trafficking and often forced to perform sex acts.”
She added, “Making DNA tests mandatory on anyone claiming a family relationship with a minor will send a powerful message that traffickers will be caught and aggressively prosecuted.”
Inhofe’s proposed bill that has 16 co-sponsors will simply state that the “current influx of migrants at the southern border of the United States constitutes a crisis.”
“The Biden-Harris administration continues to deny the facts by playing word games about what is happening at the southern border,” Inhofe said.
“My resolution today is simple — to require Senate Democrats to accept the facts, or show to American families that they will continue to play partisan politics with border security.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
