WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on The Constitution, went to the Senate floor today to try to pass the Secure the Border Act. Senate Democrats blocked the vote.
Senator Cruz’s Secure the Border Act would resume construction on the border wall, tighten asylum standards, criminalize visa overstays, increase the number of Border Patrol Agents, defund NGOs receiving tax dollars to help traffic illegal aliens throughout the heartland, prohibit DHS from using its app to assist illegal aliens, and more. The bill passed the House of Representatives as H.R. 2 earlier this Congress. It is the most comprehensive border security legislation in decades.
On the floor, Sen. Cruz said, “This bill, by design, is utterly ineffective at securing the border. It is designed to fail. In fact, we can quantify mathematically the chances this bill has a passing the House of Representatives. And those chances are 0.00%. There is however, a bill that we know would actually secure the border and would do so right now. It would put real penalties in place to end catch and release, and to defund the NGOs that are a critical part of the human trafficking network. That bill is H.R.2 and [it] has already passed the House of Representatives. I’m proud to lead H.R.2 here in the Senate. If the Democrats want to do the responsible thing, that would actually secure the border, we would pass H.R.2. Instead the Democrats deliberately want this border crisis to continue.”
Read more about the bill here.