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What steps should the Senate take to address immigration and the border crisis?
Earlier this month in Lowell, Indiana, a 14-year-old girl was stabbed while watching her brother’s baseball game by an immigrant from Honduras who was in the U.S. illegally and had ties to MS-13.
In June, 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray was tragically abducted near her home in Houston, strangled and thrown off a bridge by two immigrants from Venezuela who entered the country illegally. Both men were captured earlier this year but were released due to Biden-Harris border amnesty policies just weeks before Jocelyn’s murder.
In Maryland, a teen member of MS-13 who is in the United States illegally was allowed to enroll at a public high school and receive an education on the taxpayers’ dime, despite being the primary suspect in the brutal rape and murder of Kayla Hamilton, a young autistic woman. None of the students at the high school or their parents were notified.
Every state is a border state when Kamala Harris and Joe Biden are in charge.
Kayla Hamilton’s mother said that if Harris is elected, “It’s going to be a lot worse than it is now.” Alexis Nungaray, Jocelyn’s mother, testified in Congress last week that “because of the Biden-Harris administration open border policies, catch and release, [the murderers] were enrolled in the Alternatives to Detention program. This meant that they were released into the United States. It was not even a full three weeks later that they would take my daughter Jocelyn Nungaray’s life.”
As a father of three young girls, I cannot imagine the horror these families went through. All of these deaths would have been preventable if the Biden-Harris administration had taken border security seriously. Our open southern border is a public safety crisis, and I will fight in the Senate to fix it.
In order to take action, we must elect Donald Trump this November. On day one, he will seal the border and begin the largest deportation operation in American history. More than 10 million known illegal immigrants have crossed our southern border since Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were sworn in and reversed President Trump’s effective border policies. It matters who leads.
Right now, illegal immigrants have every incentive to take the shortcut—the Biden-Harris administration is doling out all sorts of handouts. In addition to opening the border by defunding ICE and slashing immigration detention capacity, Vice President Harris has even supported taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for illegal immigrants while they’re in prison. It is insane, and in the Senate, I will work to secure the border and remove all welfare benefits for all illegal immigrants.
I will also join President Trump in his war on the cartels. Biden and Harris’ open border enables cartels and deadly gangs to cross our border with impunity. The result: A surge in migrant crime and a fentanyl epidemic that is wiping out military-age Americans in record numbers.
As Indiana’s next United States senator, I will join President Trump in his fight to seal our border, stop the surge of migrant crime and end amnesty for illegal immigrants. The stakes are too high to put political correctness before American lives.•
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Rep. Jim Banks, a Republican, represents Indiana’s 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House. He’s running for Senate. Send comments to ibjedit@ibj.com.
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I am offended by the message Congressman Jim Banks penned relating his “solution” to the border crisis. Banks used very carefully selected calamitous examples of why immigrants are dangerous to our society. Are the examples horrific – yes. I am sure there are immigrants breaking laws every day. I am also sure that U.S. citizens commit the same crimes or worse daily. Sealing the border is NOT the solution to the question of immigration. Banks and the Republican Congress had the chance to start progress on immigration. Yet, he and his fellow Republicans failed to show the backbone to pass the bi-partisan-backed immigration measure because Donald Trump lobbied for its failure. If Trump and Banks happen to be elected, the wall will continue to be built, immigrants will continue to cross the border, and crime will not be stopped. I grew up Republican and I am sorry to say that crackpots and fearmongers have taken over the party rather than people looking for real solutions to our problems.
Republicans will never pass what they claim when it comes to immigration because it will collapse the economy. They never explain who is going to do the work … or how we are going to deal with the economic shock of losing millions of workers and the resulting wage growth. You think inflation was bad under Biden? Wait until Trump, bankruptcy expert that he is, has his turn with the double whammy of reducing the workforce and implementing tariffs that will be paid by consumers.
As Jack points out, it’s more convenient to them to be another campaign tactic. The last two years of Republican “leadership” in the House have shown that today’s GOP is a fraud. I don’t think they can all agree that the day ends in Y, much less lead.
By all means gentlemen, let’s error on the side of the sex trafficers, drug cartels and terrorists and ignore border security altogether. It was never just about the wall, that’s just a red herring the Left loves to trot out. Trump had border secutiry under control and had Congress supported finishing putting in the processes and systems, including the wall it would look MUCH better than it does now. Deny it if you want, you’re just blinded by ideology or hate if you can’t see it. Both parties are to blame for sure, big business wants the cheap labor, and the Dems want their votes (so now you’re going to tell me these folks aren’t registering? LOL). May there be a pox on both their houses.
Trump had things so under control that he took kids away from their parents and no one has been able to put the families back together yet… and it was no big deal. Remind yourself of that the next time some “Christian Republican” tells you about the importance of families …
Wayne, Republicans had the border changes they wanted in their grasp and they voted against them because Trump told them to. That tells me it’s not about illegal immigration whatsoever, it’s solely about keeping people like you riled up, blinded by ideology and hate with yet another wedge issue. Just like some folks still think Trump has more than “the concepts of a plan” to repeal and replace Obamacare …
A country that does not control its borders, will lose its sovereignty!
The laws to protect our borders are already in place and needs a Congress (yes you Mr. Banks) to force the Executive branch to enforce the existing laws.