John Thune on Border Security Investments and Trump's Immigration Policies

Southern Border Encounters Decline

• 📉 Encounters at the southern border have significantly dropped, from over 100,000 per month under the Biden administration to as low as 7,832 in July.
• 🎯 Under President Trump, illegal border crossings have slowed, and border communities are experiencing a return to quiet.
• 📍 The El Paso sector, for example, has seen daily encounters decrease from 2,700 to about 40-50 people.

Progress Under President Trump

• ✅ Border laws are being enforced, the border wall is being built, and criminal illegal immigrants are being arrested, detained, and deported.
• ⚠️ Known 'gotaways' in the El Paso sector have decreased from 400 per day last summer to an average of nine per day.
• 🗣️ The speaker credits President Trump's leadership for turning the situation around and emphasizes the need to sustain this progress.

Generational Border Security Investments

• 💰 Republicans have made a significant investment in border security through a comprehensive bill.
• 🛠️ This bill includes funding to complete the border wall, hire more border patrol and ICE agents, and increase detention and deportation capacity.
• ⚖️ Funding is also allocated to the Department of Justice to hire more immigration judges, addressing the backlog exacerbated by the Biden administration.

Dangers of Open Border Policies

• 🚨 Past open border policies were a danger, inviting terrorists, criminals, and other individuals into the country.
• 👥 These policies placed a burden on border patrol agents, border cities, and non-border cities.
• 💸 Human smuggling became a $13 billion business for cartels, with new border security measures costing them an estimated $1 billion this year.

Securing America's Borders

• 🛡️ Keeping America safe begins with securing its borders, a responsibility President Trump takes seriously.
• 🤝 Congress has acted to support this mission, aiming to make recent successes the new normal.
• 👏 Gratitude is expressed to the men and women on the front lines enforcing the law and making America safer.