WASHINGTON – Citing the recent influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, U.S. Senators Jim Risch and Mike Crapo (both R-Idaho) recently joined Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) and 19 additional co-sponsors in introducing a Senate Resolution expressing a sense of the Senate that the situation at the southern border constitutes a crisis.  

“President Biden used his first day in office to terminate the national emergency on the border, undoing a number of efforts by the Trump Administration and Congress to help mitigate problems at the southern border,” Risch and Crapo said. “Less than two weeks later, on February 2, President Biden issued an executive order to cancel the ‘remain in Mexico’ program, which allowed the United States to return people applying for asylum at the southern border to Mexico while the legal system adjudicated their cases.”

“These policy actions have encouraged a surge of migrants seeking to enter the United States. Shelters are overflowing, and crossings are rising. February saw a 174 percent increase from the previous year in border encounters, and nearly 5,000 unaccompanied children remain in short-term holding facilities. This is a crisis. Prompt action must be taken to restore order at the southern border.”

Text of the resolution is below:

The Resolution failed when it came up for a vote.

Earlier this month, Risch and Crapo signed a letter to the Government Accountability Office highlighting the Administration’s lack of lawful justification to suspend border wall construction.

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