Chairman Green in The Washington Examiner: “The Days of Our Sovereignty Being Taken for Granted Are Over”
February 4, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN) published an op-ed in The Washington Examiner, outlining the decisive action President Trump has taken in just two weeks to secure our borders and the stark contrast of this action with the historic crisis created under the Biden-Harris administration. Read the op-ed here or below.

A New Day for Border Security and the Rule of Law
The Washington Examiner
February 4, 2025
Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN)
Just one year ago, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported more than 300,000 southwest border encounters in a single month — a record. On Jan. 26, no southwest border sector experienced more than 200 border apprehensions. In fact, one of the busiest sectors along the southwest border, Del Rio, Texas, only recorded 60.
Indeed, President Donald Trump has done more in the first 100 hours of his administration to secure our borders than former President Joe Biden did in his entire presidency.
First, Trump took executive action to declare an emergency and surge resources to the southwest border, including mobilizing 1,500 additional active-duty troops to assist with border security operations.
While these measures may seem drastic, it’s important to remember how we got here.
For four years, Biden, former Vice President and “border czar” Kamala Harris, and former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas refused to enforce our nation’s laws or defend our sovereign borders, inflicting chaos and destruction on communities across this country.
In just the first week of Trump’s presidency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 2,373 illegal immigrants nationwide in targeted removal operations. Many of them had criminal histories, including murder, sexual assault, and even a connection to foreign terrorist organizations.
These illegal immigrants never should’ve been given the opportunity to roam free in our communities in the first place.
By the last summer of Biden’s presidency, nearly 650,000 criminal illegal immigrants in the country were not in ICE detention, 35,000 of whom were convicted of or charged with either murder or sexual assault.
This number includes both criminal immigrants encountered and released by CBP, immigrants released after committing crimes due to sanctuary city policies, and even some of the 2 million known “gotaways” who evaded apprehension at the border.
While border encounters and releases rose to record highs, deportations of criminal immigrants dropped 74% under Biden compared to Trump’s first term.
ICE officers were significantly obstructed by the Biden administration from fulfilling their duty to remove criminal immigrants from our communities.
Now, Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and “border czar” Tom Homan have sent the message that America will fully enforce the laws on the books, starting with removing dangerous criminal illegal immigrants.
In 2023, Chief Border Patrol Agent John Modlin of the Tucson Sector told my committee that illegal immigrants had begun turning themselves in along the border “because they believe they’re going to stay in the United States.”
With the stroke of a pen, Trump ended catch-and-release and empowered Department of Homeland Security law enforcement officers to do their jobs — both between and at ports of entry.
In the last two years, a staggering 1.5 million inadmissible immigrants were unlawfully paroled into our communities, with insufficient vetting, at ports of entry nationwide under Biden’s Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan and CBP One app mass-parole scheme.
The committee learned in 2023 that for months, around 96% of the inadmissible immigrants who scheduled appointments via the CBP One app were released on parole — not “on a case-by-case basis,” as the Immigration and Nationality Act requires.
Even worse, the fraud in the CHNV program was so brazen that even the previous administration temporarily paused applications.
In his first week, Trump ended this abuse of parole and reinforced ICE’s authority to swiftly remove these inadmissible immigrants.
The impact of the Trump administration’s actions doesn’t stop at the border. By securing our borders, the president is also dismantling the cartels’ business model and weakening their influence in the U.S.
In a 2023 transcribed interview with my committee, a Border Patrol sector chief confirmed that cartels consider Americans living near the border inside “the theater of engagement.”
It’s no surprise — the Biden administration’s era of open borders and antienforcement policies gifted these cartels an estimated $14 million per day in profit from human smuggling alone.
Now, Trump has set in motion the process to designate certain cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, which would create a whole-of-government effort to combat their deadly human and drug smuggling operations.
Even as threats from these desperate criminals continue, our front-line law enforcement can now breathe a sigh of relief with Trump back in the White House.
Under Biden, Border Patrol agents were not just overworked but also prevented from accomplishing their true mission in the field.
I spent time at the border with our CBP officers and agents. I saw their exhaustion and falling morale firsthand. I heard from their loved ones about the emotional and physical impacts of the Biden border crisis.
Now, these agents know they have the support of their president as they carry out their sworn duty to protect Americans.
If Trump’s first week in office is any indication of the next four years, every American has reason to hope. The days of our sovereignty being taken for granted are over.
Promise made. Promise kept.
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