WASHINGTON, D.C.—Representative Mike Ezell (R-MS) recently authored an op-edfor Townhall on the financial costs affecting law enforcement and first responders as a direct result of the unprecedented border crisis. 

This op-ed follows the release of the House Committee on Homeland Security’s Phase Four interim report pursuant to the Committee’s oversight investigation into how the policies of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and President Joe Biden have created and maintained the worst border crisis in American history. The report documents how the skyrocketing dollar costs of the border crisis could exceed $451 billion per year, with law enforcement shouldering a major new financial burden. Read the full report here, and Ezell’s op-ed here.

Read highlights from the op-ed:

“The crisis caused by the Biden administration’s reckless, open-border policies has burdened Americans across this country, no matter how far from the border they live. Every state has now become a border state. From Yuma County, Arizona to Jackson County, Mississippi and all the way to New York City, the costs of this disaster come in many forms. 

“With more than 40 years of law enforcement experience under my belt, I know this crisis does not just affect a community—it affects the dedicated men and women tasked with defending it. 

The unprecedented flood of more than six million illegal aliens across the Southwest border since Joe Biden and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas took office has stretched many law enforcement agencies to their breaking points. The never-ending chaos makes it harder for them to successfully protect and serve at a time when many police and sheriffs’ departments are already facing a retention crisis. 

“During my eight years as sheriff of Jackson County, I saw the physical, emotional, and psychological toll that this career can take on individual officers. Those difficulties are magnified when local law enforcement is forced to bear the costs of a national crisis. Instead of focusing on their communities, officers find themselves forced to spend valuable time and resources dealing with the ripple effects of the open border.

“The Biden-Mayorkas strategy isn’t working, and it’s undermining the morale and the homeland security mission of law enforcement across the country.”

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