{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cornyn.senate.gov/news/cornyn-colleagues-demand-answers-from-biden-harris-admin-on-destruction-of-u-s-immigration-policies/", "Cornyn, Colleagues Demand Answers from Biden-Harris Admin on Destruction of U.S. Immigration Policies", "2024-10-31", "2024", "2024-10", "Republican", "Senate", "TX", "John Cornyn", "C001056", "www.cornyn.senate.gov", "cornyn", "https://www.cornyn.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "AUSTIN \u2013 U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), along with Senators Jim Risch (R-ID), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Steve Daines (R-MT), John Hoeven (R-ND), James Lankford (R-OK), Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-KS), Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), and Tim Scott (R-SC), today sent a letter to President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding the Biden-Harris administration answer for their direct role in eroding the U.S. immigration system, compromising the safety of American families, and fueling a national security crisis through a series of destructive executive orders:\n\n\u201cWithin hours of taking office, your administration weakened our national security and undermined the integrity of U.S. immigration laws through a series of flawed executive orders and proclamations,\u201d said the lawmakers.\n\n\u201cInstead of addressing the flow of illegal immigration and illicit drugs across our borders, your administration has turned its back on those who wish to immigrate here legally and welcomed illegal aliens with open arms. Instead of directing resources to securing our borders and processing legal immigrant applications, your administration has crippled our immigration enforcement capabilities and prioritized amnesty applications.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe administration has one job\u2014to enforce the law of the land. Instead of detaining and deporting illegal aliens, your administration has shown a blatant disregard for the rule of law and national security,\u201d they wrote.\n\nFull text of the letter is here and below.\n\nOctober 31, 2024\n\nThe Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr.\n\nPresident of the United States\n\nThe White House\n\nWashington, D.C.\n\nThe Honorable Kamala D. Harris\n\nVice President of the United States\n\nThe White House\n\nWashington, D.C.\n\nCC: The Honorable Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary\n\nU.S. Department of Homeland Security\n\n245 Murray Lane SW\n\nWashington, D.C. 20528\n\nDear President Biden and Vice President Harris,\n\nWe write to you with serious concerns regarding the failure of your executive leadership to secure our southern border, enforce longstanding immigration policies, and protect the American people.\n\nYour administration has prioritized illegal aliens over the safety of American communities since day one. Within hours of taking office, your administration weakened our national security and undermined the integrity of U.S. immigration laws through a series of flawed executive orders and proclamations.\n\nOn January 20, 2021, your administration arbitrarily proclaimed the national emergency at the southern border \u201cunwarranted\u201d and halted construction of the border wall. With one proclamation, your administration terminated a project critical to fortifying our southern border and pulled security resources\u2014leaving our nation more vulnerable than ever to illegal crossings, drug trafficking, and potential terrorist threats.\n\nOn February 2, 2021, you signed an executive order to \u201crestore faith in our legal immigration systems.\u201d It unequivocally had the opposite effect. The order destabilized immigration enforcement by unilaterally expanding pathways for illegal aliens to stay in the country. It strained resources needed to process legitimate claims, and directly impacted the ability of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to detain and remove illegal aliens. In short, your administration knowingly undercut CBP and ICE officers\u2019 capacity to execute the law.\n\nYour administration reversed years of progress made under the Trump administration and fueled a crisis that spread from the southern border to small towns across America.\n\nUnder your administration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) made the decision to terminate the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), commonly known as the \u201cRemain in Mexico\u201d policy, caused an unprecedented surge at the border.] Our CBP and ICE enforcement personnel and border facilities were overrun, allowing thousands of illegal aliens to enter the U.S. with little to no vetting. Your administration briefly reinstated MPP as a result of litigation\u2014but only further weakened it by reducing the standard migrants had to meet to be exempted from the program.] To make matters worse, your administration suspended and terminated agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras that would have required migrants to seek asylum in those countries.\n\nIn addition to your administration\u2019s attempts to circumvent Congress by implementing immigration policy through executive orders, your administration has taken every opportunity to bend existing immigration law in its favor. Now, immigration officials are applying case-by-case processes like humanitarian parole to large classes and groups of people. Under this administration, the parole process, originally designed to be limited in scope, is now a tool for mass amnesty.\n\nInstead of addressing the flow of illegal immigration and illicit drugs across our borders, your administration has turned its back on those who wish to immigrate here legally and welcomed illegal aliens with open arms. Instead of directing resources to securing our borders and processing legal immigrant applications, your administration has crippled our immigration enforcement capabilities and prioritized amnesty applications. The administration has one job\u2014to enforce the law of the land. Instead of detaining and deporting illegal aliens, your administration has shown a blatant disregard for the rule of law and national security.\n\nThe border crisis is not an accident\u2014it is a direct result of this administration\u2019s deliberate choices. As members of Congress, we demand accountability to restore common-sense immigration enforcement policies that prioritize the safety and security of the American people.\n\nIn light of the foregoing facts, and for the purpose of oversight and accountability, we demand comprehensive responses to the following questions by November 30, 2024:\n\nHow many illegal aliens crossed the U.S. southern border between your administration\u2019s executive order halting border wall construction and the October 2023 determination that existing laws must be waived \u201cto ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads\u201d along the southern border?\n\nHas the implementation of the DHS\u2019s rule to terminate the MPP policy, intentionally lowering standards for credible fear screenings, significantly impacted the immigration court backlog? Has the number of immigration officials processing asylum applications increased?\n\nHow many DHS personnel were reassigned from other responsibilities specifically to process illegal migrants?\n\nDescribe the responsibilities and locations from where immigration officers have been reassigned as well as the number of officers.\n\nHow much of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 and FY 2025 DHS budget is allocated to implementing the Biden-Harris parole-in-place programs? Please provide both the percentage and the dollar figure for each of these two fiscal years.\n\nSincerely,\n\n/s/", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:55:29Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cornyn.senate.gov/news/cornyn-colleagues-demand-answers-from-biden-harris-admin-on-destruction-of-u-s-immigration-policies/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9359419345855713, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}