Chairman Green Highlights Border Reinforcement Act on Fox News

WASHINGTON, D.C. – With Title 42 expected to end and worsen Secretary Mayorkas’ already-unprecedented border crisis next month, House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN) joined Sandra Smith on Fox News’ Your World with Neil Cavuto to discuss the Border Reinforcement Act of 2023, which was introduced on Monday and is scheduled for markup in Committee tomorrow. This legislation provides critical and thoughtful solutions to restore order at the Southwest border and prevent any further hit to operational readiness at our nation’s Northern and maritime borders, including increased infrastructure, personnel, and technology for our frontline CBP officers and Border Patrol agents.

On funding additional Border Patrol personnel in the Border Reinforcement Act, Chairman Green said:

“The cartel strategy, which interestingly enough Secretary Mayorkas said he wasn’t aware of, but Merrick Garland the Attorney General was, is essentially to use CBP and to manipulate our CBP forces by neutralizing them at crossing points. So, the more folks we can get on the line actually out in the rural areas the better we are at stopping some of those gotaways, the folks that are trying to avoid detection. Those are the real concerns for our country.”

On addressing President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas’ open-border policies, Chairman Green said:

“There is absolutely no deterrence. [The Biden administration] basically has opened the border completely. They allowed the return agreements to the various countries to expire intentionally, so they can’t return them. The CBP One app that they’ve adjusted from what was intended to be a cargo-processing commerce app to basically mass parole for anyone who uses it has just caused massive waves of people to come. There’s no disincentive, there’s no detention.” 

On modernizing Border Patrol technology in the Border Reinforcement Act, Chairman Green said:

“You can [use] detection sensors that basically cover parts of the area of our border where the agents can’t be located. There are specifically drones, there are balloons that have cameras and forward-looking infrared radar. Those kinds of things that detect people and then allow the [CBP] and Border Patrol folks to respond to specific areas. Some of the Border Patrol agents don’t even have radios. Our bill actually provides the funding so that every single agent has a two-way radio.”

On restarting border wall construction in the Border Reinforcement Act, Chairman Green said:

“There’s $2.4 billion left over from President Trump. President Biden, as soon as he got in office, shut down all construction, which cost several billion dollars to settle those contracts to the American taxpayer…We think [at least] 900 miles of wall can be built, and we are going to tell them to spend that money. We are also going to mandate 200 miles of wall a year.”