Senator Britt is honored to serve as the Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The Homeland Security Subcommittee’s jurisdiction covers the DHS and its component agencies, including those responsible for immigration enforcement and border security. She believes that we must invest strategically and intentionally in solutions to secure our border and end this crisis. In his Fiscal Year 2025 Budget, President Biden proposed to cut DHS’ base budget for the second consecutive year. Senator Britt has the utmost respect for the tens of thousands of DHS agents, officers, and employees who work tirelessly to protect our nation at the border, and she believes they should be given the resources they need to do the job they signed up to do.
As evidenced by President Biden’s recent budget proposals, rampant abuse of presidential parole authority, and continued mass migration policies that invite, fuel, and facilitate our nation’s open borders, the current administration has failed to keep our homeland safe. The unprecedented humanitarian and national security crisis unfolding at our southern border is catastrophic. Senator Britt has seen firsthand the devastating consequences that families and communities are facing due to this administration’s reckless policies, including women and children who are being abused and trafficked by the cartels at historic rates. The encounter numbers at the border continue to shatter records, but the Biden Administration has only doubled down on its dangerous policies. Vulnerable children, women, and men are dying every day as a result, and hardworking Americans in every corner of the United States are suffering.
As Alabama’s U.S. Senator, she has made border security and the resulting safety of American children, families, and communities a top focus during her time in office, including three visits to our southern border during her first two months in office. In 2023, she introduced a robust package of legislation designed to address the border crisis. The Keep Our Communities Safe Act would close the Obama-Biden catch-and-release policy that requires the federal government to release illegal aliens into the United States’ interior after detaining them for six months, if no other country accepts them for deportation. Senator Britt believes that we need to keep our communities safe by ensuring DHS has the legal authority to detain criminals. She also introduced the Asylum Abuse Reduction Act, which would crack down on asylum abuse and reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy. Additionally, she introduced legislation that would fully fund the completion of border wall construction along our southern border by eliminating government handouts and entitlements being used by illegal aliens in our nation’s interior and penalizing those who are illegally crossing the border.
Senator Britt has also cosponsored a number of bills introduced by her colleagues that would stem the flow of illegal crossings at our southern border and increase penalties for those who are engaged in the trafficking of adults and children, as well as the drug cartels that are moving deadly fentanyl across the border. Those bills include: the Stop Taxpayer Funding of Traffickers Act; the Immigration Parole Reform Act of 2023; the Accountability Through Electronic Verification Act; the Build the Wall Now Act; the No Coyote Cash Act; the Felony Murder for Deadly Fentanyl Distribution Act; the Stopping Border Surges Act; the Border Safety and Security Act; the Fairness in Fentanyl Sentencing Act of 2023; the Stop Dangerous Sanctuary Cities Act; the FEND Off Fentanyl Act; and a joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act to strike down President Biden’s Circumvention of Lawful Pathways rule.
Furthermore, she recently stood with her Senate colleagues to introduce S. 2824, the Secure the Border Act. This legislation, the companion bill to H.R. 2, would resume construction of the wall at the southern border, strengthen asylum standards, criminalize visa overstays, increase the number of Border Patrol agents, defund nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that are using tax dollars to resettle migrants within the United States, and end DHS’ use of the CBP One app to assist illegal aliens.
This year, Senator Britt led her colleagues in introducing the Laken Riley Act, a Senate companion bill to H.R.7511. This legislation would require U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest illegal aliens who commit theft, burglary, larceny, or shoplifting offenses and would mandate that these aliens are detained until they are removed from the United States so they cannot reoffend and commit further crimes. Additionally, this legislation would ensure that States have standing to bring civil actions against federal officials who refuse to enforce immigration law or who violate the law.
In December of last year, Senator Britt also introduced S. 3470, the Citizen Ballot Protection Act, which would amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to permit States to include a requirement that applicants provide proof of citizenship as part of the federal mail voter registration form and any State mail voter registration forms they might develop. Current law bars non-citizens from voting in federal elections. This important legislation would help to ensure States are able to better verify that only American citizens are registering to vote in federal elections.
Senator Britt looks forward to continuing to work with her colleagues as they undertake the critical task of securing our border. She knows that we need to enact substantive solutions that will end this national security and humanitarian crisis, not let the Biden Administration continue to facilitate it. Senator Britt won’t stop fighting to secure the border, combat the flood of fentanyl, support our tremendous law enforcement officers, and cut off the incentives that encourage more people to break the law.
