by Jennie Taer
Republican South Carolina Rep. Jeff Duncan introduced a series of bills Thursday to secure the southern border and crack down on illegal immigration.
The package includes six bills introduced in the last Congress that seek to ban access to Social Security for illegal immigrants, allow authorities to deport illegal immigrants who are listed on the national terrorism database, permit funds from the cartels to be used to build a border wall, revoke passports from members of foreign terrorist groups, punish illegal immigrants who overstay visas and make sanctuary cities ineligible for federal funding, according legislation obtained by the DCNF. Duncan’s plan follows U.S. Custom and Border Protection’s (CBP) highest month on record for migrant encounters, which topped more than 250,000 in December.
“Our nation is being invaded at our southern border due to open border policies and a lack of enforcement,” Duncan said in a statement to the DCNF.
One of the bills to fund the building of a border wall instructs the Department of Justice (DOJ) to take funds from forfeited Mexican cartel assets in order to build a barrier and roads to prevent illegal crossings. Another bill that seeks to punish sanctuary cities makes states and local governments that don’t cooperate with immigration enforcement actions ineligible from receiving federal funds for a period of at least one year
“The southern border crisis threatens our national security, and we have no idea who is in our country due to the surge of illegal immigration since Joe Biden took office,” Duncan said.
CBP apprehended 38 individuals whose names appeared on the national terrorism database at the southern border in the first three months of fiscal year 2023, according to agency statistics.
“Border security is national security, and I am confident my immigration legislative package will begin to take necessary steps to combat the southern border crisis and safeguard our national security,” he added.
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Jennie Taer is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Jeff Duncan” by U.S. House of Representatives. Background Photo “Border Wall” by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
