Write a new simple attractive title based on the title from Smucker: Biden’s border failure creates national security, humanitarian crisis | opinion and dont use quote marks

Earlier this month, I joined 11 of my House Budget Committee Republican colleagues in visiting our nation’s southern border in McAllen, Texas, to see President Biden’s border crisis first-hand. Now in my third term in Congress, I have visited the border more often than President Biden, who has been in Washington, D.C. for nearly half a century. His refusal to see the border crisis firsthand is an acknowledgement that his policies continue to fail the American people.

What I saw there was shocking. The policies of the Biden administration have created the humanitarian and national security crisis we all are witnessing. Their refusal to secure our border is resulting in drug trafficking, particularly fentanyl, and human trafficking which impacts communities like ours across the country.

Critically, Biden’s failure to secure our southern border poses an enormous national security threat. We know of at least 42 individuals on the terrorist watchlist have attempted to enter the country since Biden took office.

Since Biden has taken office, there have been over 2.6 million encounters, or attempted crossings, at our southern border. April 2022’s 234,088 encounters set a new record for the highest number for any single month in our nation’s history. Fourteen straight months recorded over 150,000 encounters. In the Rio Grande Valley Sector, which we toured, has received 287,175 migrants since the beginning of the fiscal year.

We are witnessing an intentional choice by the Biden administration driven by politics, not good policy. The radical left elements of Biden’s party proposed eliminating Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) the law enforcement organization responsible for enforcing immigration laws within our nation. Biden proposed an $800 million cut to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in his most recent budget.

President Biden frequently quotes his father, saying “Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget — and I’ll tell you what you value.” Biden’s latest budget indicates that he does not value border security. Nowhere in his budget does Biden even mention border security.

In his first days in office, Biden weakened America’s national security by stopping construction of border wall — a tool which Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, who safeguard our border, told me helps them do their jobs. Biden made CBP agent’s jobs more difficult by proposing to end the enforcement of Title 42, which CBP agents have said would increase crossings by 25 percent.

CBP agents showed us mile long gaps between sections of border wall, where construction was simply halted by the Biden administration. Congress already appropriated the funding, and yet Biden once again chose politics over good policy. A short drive away, tons of metal which would have been used to build 60 miles the wall sits in a guarded compound collecting rust. By letting this material rust, Biden wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in addition to the costs incurred by canceling contracts.

The Biden administration’s weak border policies embolden cartels and their criminal drug and human trafficking operations. In conversations with CBP and law enforcement officials, Mexican criminal cartels are earning profits by preying on migrants and extorting fees from them to cross the border into America. CBP officials estimate that monthly revenues for these criminal cartels exceeds $1 billion a month.

These cartels are also attempting to bring in more drugs to the nation than ever before, particularly fentanyl, an extremely dangerous synthetic opioid. To date this fiscal year, CBP has seized 390,000 pounds of drugs at our southern border, including 6,600 pounds of fentanyl. An officer with the McAllen Police Department told me that the city averages two fentanyl busts a month, each of which contain enough fentanyl to kill every American.

Fentanyl not stopped at the border finds its way into communities across the country, including ours in south central Pennsylvania. Tragically, fentanyl has been the leading cause of the 686 drug overdoses in York and Lancaster counties since 2020, according to data from OverdoseFreePA. Nationwide fentanyl has caused roughly two-thirds of 2021’s over 100,000 overdose deaths.

Border security is national security. The policy choices we see coming from the Biden administration are intentional. CBP agents are doing the best job they can, but the Biden administration is failing them. For the good of our country, the Biden administration must work swiftly to put an end to this humanitarian and national security crisis by securing our southern border. If he wants to work to secure our border in earnest, congressional Republicans will gladly work with him to do so. However, if he fails to do so, drug trafficking and human trafficking will continue to plague our communities and nation. And our national security will remain endangered.

Rep. Lloyd Smucker represents Pennsylvania’s 11^th Congressional District and serves on the House Committee on the Budget and the House Committee on Ways and Means.