House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) and Republican committee members introduced the Border Reinforcement Acts of 2023, a bill Republicans spent two years reviewing.
“Following over five million illegal encounters at our Southwest border, a worsening crisis at our Northern and Maritime borders, and the record number of lives lost to fentanyl poisoning across the country, it is clear this administration does not have the operational control it claims,” Green said in a statement.
“Today, this Committee introduced real border security solutions crafted with the insight of those who pay the cost of this crisis every day: frontline Border Patrol agents, their families, local business owners, state and local law enforcement, as well as farmers and ranchers,” the statement continued.
The bill is designed to work in conjunction with the House Judiciary Committee’s Border Security and Enforcement Act.
Reporting from The Washington Examiner:
The homeland security bill largely follows that proposal and would reinstate mandates for physical barriers, infrastructure, and technology on the 2,000-mile southern border. Although the Trump administration funded 800 miles of border wall projects, it completed just over 450 miles. Additionally, the bill seeks to bolster Customs and Border Protection staffing levels, modernize and enhance technology, demand transparency from the Department of Homeland Security, address Border Patrol retention, support local law enforcement's assistance at the border, and rein in CBP's use of humanitarian parole.
