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Cornyn Backs Renewed Effort to Strengthen Border Security

Cosponsors Amendment Providing $3 Billion in Emergency Funding to Help Secure Border

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, Ranking Member of the Immigration, Border Security and Refugees subcommittee, today cosponsored the Border Security First Act, which provides $3 billion in emergency funding for border security improvements, as an amendment to the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill.  Below are excerpts of Sen. Cornyn’s remarks on the Senate floor followed by background information on this amendment.

“We know that many individuals who come here want nothing but a better life in America. There are also very dangerous individuals, however, who want to do us harm.  Increasingly, Central America and Mexico are a land bridge into the United States for anybody anywhere around the world who wants to come here.  That’s the reason this emergency funding for border security is so important.

“It’s also important that we begin to regain the lost public confidence that the federal government can actually deliver on its promises.  We’ve been telling people for a long time how important it is in a post-9/11 world to know who is coming into our country and why they are coming here. 

“We were reminded again about the dangers of our porous borders when on Monday officials with the immigration and customs enforcement service announced that they had arrested more than 100 gang members in Texas.  These 121 suspects represent 27 different gangs including the notorious Mexican mafia and MS-13, which is an ultra-violent Central American gang that has come into the United States through our broken borders.  More than half of these gang members had criminal charges against them and nearly half of them were arrested on administrative and immigration-related charges.  So we are reminded time and time again, as most recently as the daily newspaper yesterday, what the threat is to our country. Yet Congress continues to not do nearly enough to fix it.”

The Border Security First Act of 2007 requires and provides funding for the following, among other things: 

• Operational control over 100 percent of the U.S.-Mexico land border
• 23,000 Border Patrol agents hired, trained, and reporting for duty
• 4 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles & 105 ground-based radar and camera towers
• 300 miles of vehicle barriers & 700 miles of border fencing
• A permanent end to the “catch-and-release” policy with 45,000 detention beds.

The act contains additional border and interior enforcement provisions necessary for stemming the tide of illegal immigration, restricting immigration benefits to lawbreakers, and further protecting the homeland from terrorists and criminals.  Examples of these provisions include:

• Increased Personnel: Requires a total of 14,500 new Customs & Border Patrol (CBP) agents through Fiscal Year 2012 – to approximately 30,000 CBP agents overall – as well as increased hires of new Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents for interior and workplace enforcement. 
• Sanctuary Cities: Prohibits cities from banning the obtaining of information on immigration status by their own law enforcement agencies. 
• Operation Jump Start/National Guard: Provides additional funding for Operation Jump Start to maintain a National Guard presence along the Southern border.
• Criminal Aliens: Strengthens laws to deny immigration benefits to aggravated felons, gang members, terrorists, sex offenders, and child abusers.  The bill also expands the Institutional Removal Program and gives DHS the ability to detain criminal aliens for an extended period of time before they can be removed.  
• State and Local Law Enforcement:  Gives state and local law enforcement new authorities to detain illegal aliens and transfer them into DHS custody.  Moreover, it allows state and local law enforcement authorities to use homeland security grants for 287(g) training and provides funding to cover the costs of detaining and transporting criminal aliens.
• Visa Overstayers: Requires DHS to detain aliens who willfully overstay their period of authorized admission for more than 60 days.
• Illegal Reentry: Increases criminal penalties and sets mandatory minimum prison sentences for aliens who have been removed and illegally re-enter our country.
• Expedited Removal:  Restricts the impact of outdated court injunctions that currently prevent DHS from certain illegal immigrants into expedited removal and returning them to their country of origin as soon as circumstances allow.
• US-VISIT and Entry Inspection: Clarifies DHS’s authority to collect biometric entry and exit data at U.S. ports of entry, as well as requires the Department to provide Congress a timeline for implementing US-VISIT at all land border points of entry.
• Employment Eligibility Verification: Requires DHS to enhance the Basic Pilot Program to help facilitate broader use by employers as well as improved accuracy and efficiency.
• Liability Protection for Reporting Suspicious Threats: Grants civil liability protection to those who report possible threats to our nation’s transportation system.

Sen. Cornyn serves on the Armed Services, Judiciary and Budget Committees. In addition, he is Vice Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference and the Senate Select Committee on Ethics. He serves as the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee’s Immigration, Border Security and Refugees subcommittee and the Armed Services Committee’s Airland subcommittee. He served previously as Texas Attorney General, Texas Supreme Court Justice, and Bexar County District Judge.

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