Goodlatte: President’s Policies Create Border Disorder
October 10, 2014
Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) issued the statement below regarding the number of unaccompanied alien minors (UAM) and family units apprehended at the Southwest border for Fiscal Year 2014, which was recently released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Before the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was implemented in the summer of 2012, the number of UAM apprehended at the border was 6,560 in Fiscal Year 2011. This year, the number of UAM caught at the border surged to 68,541, which is a 945% increase since Fiscal Year 2011. Additionally, the number of family units apprehended at the border jumped from 14,855 last year to 68,445 in Fiscal Year 2014, representing a 361% increase.
Chairman Goodlatte: “After six years of refusing to enforce our immigration laws and acting unilaterally to provide administrative amnesty to unlawful immigrants, President Obama has created disorder at our borders. Word has spread to Central America and beyond that our immigration laws are not enforced, which has encouraged hundreds of thousands of people to make the dangerous trek north to illegally cross our Southwest border. It’s not surprising that since the implementation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program the number of minors crossing the border has surged by nearly 1,000%.
“The solution to this problem is simple: the President and his Administration must enforce our immigration laws. However, President Obama refuses to take the steps necessary to enforce our laws and end the chaos at the border. Instead he has made the situation worse by promising to take action later this year to change our immigration laws. These proclamations from the White House will only encourage more people to come to the U.S. illegally.”
Background: In July, Chairman Goodlatte led a bipartisan delegation to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas to examine this crisis and seek solutions on how best to stop it. During the trip, members of the House Judiciary Committee toured federal facilities and met with those dealing with this problem firsthand at the border, including law enforcement officers and federal officials from the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and Health and Human Services. Key findings from the trip can be found here. Chairman Goodlatte’s op-ed outlining actions President Obama could take now to end the border crisis can be found here.
Additionally, this summer the House of Representatives approved legislation (H.R. 5230) to provide targeted, narrow funding for border security, enforcement of immigration laws, and illegal immigration deterrence through the end of Fiscal Year 2014 in order to meet law enforcement’s immediate needs at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Senate failed to act.
Chairman Goodlatte: “After six years of refusing to enforce our immigration laws and acting unilaterally to provide administrative amnesty to unlawful immigrants, President Obama has created disorder at our borders. Word has spread to Central America and beyond that our immigration laws are not enforced, which has encouraged hundreds of thousands of people to make the dangerous trek north to illegally cross our Southwest border. It’s not surprising that since the implementation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program the number of minors crossing the border has surged by nearly 1,000%.
“The solution to this problem is simple: the President and his Administration must enforce our immigration laws. However, President Obama refuses to take the steps necessary to enforce our laws and end the chaos at the border. Instead he has made the situation worse by promising to take action later this year to change our immigration laws. These proclamations from the White House will only encourage more people to come to the U.S. illegally.”
Background: In July, Chairman Goodlatte led a bipartisan delegation to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas to examine this crisis and seek solutions on how best to stop it. During the trip, members of the House Judiciary Committee toured federal facilities and met with those dealing with this problem firsthand at the border, including law enforcement officers and federal officials from the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and Health and Human Services. Key findings from the trip can be found here. Chairman Goodlatte’s op-ed outlining actions President Obama could take now to end the border crisis can be found here.
Additionally, this summer the House of Representatives approved legislation (H.R. 5230) to provide targeted, narrow funding for border security, enforcement of immigration laws, and illegal immigration deterrence through the end of Fiscal Year 2014 in order to meet law enforcement’s immediate needs at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Senate failed to act.