Newhouse Visits Southern Border, Congress Still Stuck On Issue

Fourth District U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse is back from a visit to the Southern Border as Congress remains at odds over immigration.

Newhouse led a group of 11 Republican lawmakers to tour the Arizona border with Mexico last Thursday, where he said the lack of border security is a crisis.

He says the alarming number of illegal border crossings is impacting every state like a southern state.

“People are desperate to come to the United States, and I do not blame them for wanting to come, but we need to have a controlled entrance into our country, or we’ve lost our sovereignty,” Newhouse said Newhouse.

The Congressman supports H.R.2, the Secure the Border Act of 2023 as a means to deal with border security.

The bill passed the House in May of last year with no Democratic support and two Republicans voting against it.

The measure calls for a mandatory E-Verify system for all workers who change jobs, sharply curbing asylum options, preventing the use of parole programs, such as those for Afghans and Ukrainians, and resuming the building of the border wall.

The group of lawmakers with Newhouse attended a briefing from the Cochise County Sheriff’s Department on border conditions and the impact on local communities.

The delegation then toured the Coronado National Memorial area of the border, where they met with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol personnel.

Members also participated in a House Natural Resources Committee field hearing.

Fellow Republicans joining Newhouse on the trip were Reps. Juan Ciscomani (AZ-06), Doug LaMalfa (CA-01), Michelle Fischbach (MN-07), Pete Stauber (MN-08), Bruce Westerman (AR-04), Buddy Carter (GA-01), John Curtis (UT-03), Harriet Hageman (WY-AL), Kevin Hern (OK-01), Mike Collins (GA-10), and James Moylan (Guam-AL).

The trip came as bipartisan immigration legislation in the U.S. Senate, largely engineered by Oklahoma Republican James Lankford, fell apart after harsh criticism from Former President and current candidate Donald Trump.