Sen. Scott Statement on Biden “Band-Aid Border Solutions”

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) issued the following statement in response to the Biden administration’s newly released executive action on the southern border crisis:

“From band-aid border solutions to self-congratulatory press conferences in D.C., one thing remains true: President Biden would rather posture than do anything meaningful to secure our southern border. When President Biden assumed office, he rolled back effective policies that kept our border secure and Americans safe. Three years and nearly 10 million illegal border crossings later, he is using ‘executive action,’ which he claimed not to have, in a politically-driven, sloppy attempt to plug a hole when the whole dam has broken open. Americans are fed up with this administration speaking with a forked tongue as the situation at the border falls further and further into chaos.”

BACKGROUND

Senator Scott has pushed back against the Biden administration’s dangerous open border policies and fought to protect Americans by:

• Supporting the Laken Riley Act to ensure that America’s streets are safe from illegal immigrants who have been convicted of crimes;
• Championing bills to stop sanctuary cities and keep American communities safe from the failed policies of progressive politicians who have allowed violent criminal illegal immigrants to continue committing crimes;
• Visiting the U.S.-Mexico border to discuss the illegal immigration crisis with CBP officers and federal officials;
• Championing the Creating Obstructions Necessary to Address Illegal and Nefarious Entry Rapidly (CONTAINER) Act, which empowers border states to place temporary barriers on federal land in order to protect their communities;
• Advocating for the Keep Our Border Agents Paid Act, which ensures CBP and ICE agents and contractors continue to be paid in the event of a shutdown as President Biden’s southern border crisis continues to spiral out of control;
• Fighting for the Secure the Border Act of 2023 to address the Biden administration’s open border crisis by increasing the number of Border Patrol Agents, resuming construction on the border wall, tightening asylum standards, criminalizing visa overstays, and prohibiting DHS from using its app to assist illegal immigrants; 
• Condemning the Department of Defense’s decision to auction off approximately $260 million worth of border wall construction materials;
• Championing his Securing Our Border Act, which redirects $15 billion of funding passed by Democrats to hire 87,000 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents and utilizes it to bolster security measures along our southern border;
• Introducing the Alan T. Shao II Fentanyl Public Health Emergency and Overdose Prevention Act to utilize powers similar to those under Title 42 so that the Department of Homeland Security continues to expedite the processing and removal of migrants illegally entering the country in response to the fentanyl-related public health emergency;
• Calling on the Senate to fulfill its constitutional duty by holding a trial to consider the impeachment of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas; and 
• Authoring the bipartisan Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act, a sanctions and anti-money laundering bill aimed at combatting the country’s fentanyl crisis by targeting the illicit fentanyl supply chain, from the chemical suppliers in China to the cartels that traffic the drugs in from Mexico. The bill was signed into law in April as a part of the national security supplemental package.