On Friday, the House passed H.R. 5230, the Secure the Southwest Border Act of 2014, which would provide additional funding and resources to help the U.S. Border Patrol secure our southwestern border. Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar led the effort that caused the two original flawed immigration bills to be pulled from the House floor on Thursday and replaced with alternative bills passed on Friday, which terminates President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA).
According to Gosar, “the bill help better protect our border, expedite the removal of illegal immigrants and grant additional funds and authority for the National Guard to be deployed to secure the border. Too bad the Senate already left town for August recess.”
Arizona Rep. Matt Salmon, who along with six other members of the House Border Crisis Working Group, said Friday’s bill contained some of the best provisions his group has developed.
“The final bill increases National Guard presence on the Southwest border (solely at the discretion of border governors), grants authority for Southwest border states to reallocate existing federal grants to combat illegal immigration and drug trafficking, allows Customs and Border Patrol on all federal lands, and fixes problems in the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008—changing the catch-and-release policies of this administration to the commonsense detain-and-deport policies necessary to discourage additional illegal immigration at our border,” said Salmon in a statement released Friday.
“Best of all, this bill is 100% paid-for without a single cent in additional spending” said Salmon. “Sound reforms that don’t add to our deficit and debt? It doesn’t get much better than that. I praise my colleagues for their support on this vote, and I urge Harry Reid to put aside partisan politics, return the Senate to Washington, D.C., and do what’s best for the country by passing this legislation immediately.”
“I have been extremely vocal in my opposition in giving this President and his administration any opportunities to further expand his unconstitutional attempts at granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants,” said Gosar in a series of statements released on Friday. “So let me make this clear: The United States does NOT need more immigration laws… only for the President to ENFORCE our current laws.”
“I oppose amnesty in any form and I have been leading the charge in holding this administration accountable for the ongoing crisis they created at our Southern border. My constituents sent me to Washington to protect Americans from the disastrous efforts by the Obama Administration to grant amnesty to millions of immigrants flooding our border. I will continue to fight for LEGAL immigration and against the devastating consequences of failing to uphold our immigration laws,” concluded Gosar.
Congressman Ron Barber was inconvenienced by the vote, and voted against it. Barber released a statement expressing his anger. It read: “Yesterday, Barber and Congressman John Carney of Delaware were forced to cancel a planned tour of the Southern Arizona border with Mexico because House leaders were unable to reach agreement on how to address the current security and humanitarian crisis on the border.”
Barber has been taking tours of the border for years and rejected any meaningful actions to protect the people living along the border according to area ranchers and other residents.
Barber claimed that the House vote was rushed through “so congressional leadership can go on vacation.” However, it is the Democrat controlled Senate that has already left town.
The Tucson Sector accounts for 13 percent of the border, but in fiscal year 2013 it had 28 percent of the nation’s apprehensions of illegal immigrants and 49 percent of all drug seizures made by the Border Patrol, according to Barber’s office.
Earlier this month, Barber cosponsored the Helping Unaccompanied Minors and Alleviating National Emergency (HUMANE) Act. The legislation was introduced by Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat, and Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican. The legislation revises the Immigration and Nationality Act to establish an expedited screening process for unaccompanied children to be settled in the country.