House Republicans Unveil Bill to Strengthen Immigration Enforcement

Newly elected House Speaker Kevin McCarthy holds the gavel after he was elected on the 15th ballot at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 7, 2023. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)

House Republicans on May 2 introduced a wide-ranging bill that will strengthen enforcement of immigration laws along the U.S.–Mexico border.

H.R. 2, dubbed the “Secure Border Act of 2023,” was put forward by Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and Tom McClintock (R-Calif.).

“The crisis at our Southern border is among the gravest threats to U.S. national security in our history,” Diaz-Balart said in a statement on the bill. “For the last two years, President [Joe] Biden and his Administration have entirely neglected the escalating crisis at our border, and their lack of action has ceded all control to narco-terrorist cartels, who are now among the most powerful in deciding who comes into our country and at what price.”

The key provision of the bill relates to the construction of a border wall between the United States and Mexico: under President Donald Trump, materials for the construction of a border wall were purchased. Upon taking office, Biden halted construction on the barrier, suggesting that a wall was “racist.”

Thus, the materials have sat unused along the border for over two years. According to some estimates, this has cost the United States over $70 million already.

The GOP bill would require Biden to again authorize construction on the wall.

In addition, it would deploy an array of new technology to the border, increase the number of Border Patrol agents, and up their pay.

Republicans also seek to end “catch-and-release,” a controversial Biden administration policy under which illegal aliens thought to be low risk are released into the interior after being apprehended at the border.

Additionally, the bill seeks to strengthen protections for unaccompanied minors crossing the border after explosive whistleblower testimony alleged that the U.S. government is acting as a crucial “middleman” for cartel child trafficking operations.

In his statement on the bill, Diaz-Balart said: “Minors are now being used by their ’sponsors’—oftentimes adults they have never met—to perform brutal and dangerous jobs across the United States, violating child all labor laws and putting these innocent lives at tremendous risk.”

He added, “It is long past the time to take back control of the border from the drug cartels and establish humane and fair policies that adhere to the rule of law.”

The legislation has already won the important support of Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who put out a statement supporting and summarizing the legislation (pdf).

“The Biden administration’s open-border policies have led to an unprecedented national security and humanitarian crisis at our southern border,” McCarthy said. “For more than two years, President Biden and Democrats in Congress have ignored this crisis.”

H.R. 2, McCarthy added, “fulfills [Republicans’] promise to the American people to deliver solutions to a crisis that affects not just cities and states along the border—but every city and state across the country.”

He concluded, “The administration has not taken any meaningful action to secure the border since taking office in January 2021. To the contrary, time and again, they have taken purposeful actions to make it worse. House Republicans will take action to secure the border and restore the rule of law. This is our commitment to America.”

The bill seems likely to pass relatively easily through the House, where Republicans hold a slight majority, but will face tougher hurdles in the Democrat-controlled Senate, where it may not even come to a vote. Even if the Senate passed the bill, it would be unlikely to win Biden’s support.