The U.S. House of Representatives must “stop funding” the border crisis, Mark Morgan, former acting Customs and Border Protection commissioner, says.
Speaking at a mock impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas hosted by Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., on Wednesday, Morgan challenged House Republicans to refuse to pass supplemental spending bills “where 100% of the money you’re passing is going directly to the care and feeding and housing of illegal aliens.”
Joining Biggs at the impeachment forum were fellow Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Michael Cloud of Texas, Matt Rosendale of Montana, Matt Gaetz of Florida, and Bob Good of Virginia, though several lawmakers, including Gaetz and Greene, departed the forum before Morgan’s funding remarks.
“I know I’m not talking to the gentlemen here, but I am talking to some of your colleagues,” Morgan said, adding, “I know I’m going to say something that is not going to be popular even with some Republicans, but at some point, the House, you have the power of the purse, stop funding the bleeding of this administration’s willful refusal to enforce the Constitution and the laws on the books. Stop funding it, even if that means shutting down the government.”
Morgan is also a visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation, the parent organization of The Daily Signal.
In December, nine Republican House members voted to pass a $1.85 trillion omnibus spending bill that included $800 million “to support sheltering and related activities provided by non-Federal entities, including facility improvements and construction, in support of relieving overcrowding in short-term holding facilities of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.”
The spending bill also allocated “up to $785 million” for an “emergency food and shelter program under title II of the McKinney Vento Homeless Assistance Act … for the purposes of providing shelter and other services to families and individuals encountered by the Department of Homeland Security.”
Additionally, the bill provides over $339 million for “non-detention border management requirements” and allows $2.4 billion to “remain available until Sept. 30, 2024” for “Refugee and Entrant Assistance.” That assistance includes “culturally and linguistically appropriate services, including wraparound services, housing assistance, medical assistance, legal assistance, and case management assistance.”
The House Republicans who voted in favor of the omnibus spending bill include Reps. Steve Womack, R-Ark.; Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa.; Fred Upton, R-Mich.; Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.; Rodney Davis, R-Ill.; John Katko, R-N.Y.; Chris Jacobs, R-N.Y.; Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash.; and Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.
Prior to the House vote on the bill, 18 Senate Republicans voted to pass the $1.85 trillion bill that includes billions in grants and funding for aid programs for illegal aliens.
“If you continue to give this administration money without compelling a change of policies, you’ll just be a Congress that has funded the border crisis,” Robert Law, director of the Center for Homeland Security and Immigration at the America First Policy Institute, said during the forum.
The mock impeachment forum was held shortly after Biggs filed new articles of impeachment against Mayorkas in Congress, saying in a press release that Mayorkas “is the chief architect of the migration and drug invasion at our southern border.”
In fiscal year 2022, which ended Sept. 30, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported a record 2.3 million land encounters with migrants at the southern border. With over 700,000 encounters between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, 2022 (the first three months of fiscal year 2023), CBP encounters with migrants are on track to overtake the previous year’s numbers.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports that it seized just over 14,000 pounds of fentanyl in fiscal year 2022, which ended Sept. 30, and more than 7,000 pounds between October and the end of December.
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