A legislative framework announced by the U.S. House Republicans’ American Security Task Force for solving the steadily worsening crisis of illegal migration at the southern border is a major positive step that needs to be fleshed out in a bill that can be approved by Congress, says Texas Public Policy Foundation Vice President for Federal Affairs John Hostettler.
“The members of the American Security Task Force have correctly identified what needs to be done to stop the current border crisis in its tracks,” said Hostettler, himself a former Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims. “That includes restoring the Migrant Protection Protocols, ending catch and release and shutting down the rampant fraud and mismanagement currently taking place in the administration of the asylum system,” said Hostettler.
Hostettler explained that the next step for House Republicans should be to consolidate the recommended measures into a bill that can win approval from a majority of the members of the next Congress. “The border crisis is going to be on the ballot in these mid-term elections,” he said. “This November the American people will choose between the current Biden administration policy that is fomenting the crisis and one that will end it,” added Hostettler, who leads TPPF’s States Trust project.
For months TPPF, along with other conservative allies and border security experts, has been calling on Congress to prioritize passage of a legislative package to end the border crisis. “The path to putting an end to the border crisis will not be easy,” Hostettler observed. “In the face of a recalcitrant presidential administration, the power over the purse and congressional oversight will also need to be aggressively pursued,” he added.
“My hope is that in both houses of Congress there will also appear some Democrats who will join in support of these needed solutions. Those who continue to stand in the way, on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, will be exposed as the active facilitators of the border crisis. Ultimately, the mandate the American people issue for a sweeping course correction must be respected and a solution must be achieved,” concluded Hostettler.