Border security is priority

 The Cannon:

Border security must be prerequisite to any reform.

President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to bring on Tom Homan, the former head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as border czar is a powerful step in the right direction for border security.
Mr. Homan has a history of tough, no-nonsense enforcement, and his expertise is needed now more than ever. But as the incoming administration prepares to lead the nation, it must remain committed to securing the border as a nonnegotiable prerequisite separate from and before considering any immigration reform.

Since moderates attempted to tie Mr. Trump’s border wall to amnesty in 2017, the Texas Public Policy Foundation has consistently called for requiring border security as a prerequisite before any immigration reform is considered.

This was one of the missed opportunities of the Reagan administration. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 was billed as a grand bargain combining border security with a “pathway to citizenship” — really, an amnesty program for millions of illegal aliens.

The grand bargain proved no bargain at all, as amnesty went into effect while security measures were not properly enforced. And efforts to require employment verification of citizenship left the door open to rampant fraud.

The amnesty programs of the 1980s only led to an increase in illegal immigration and the push for more amnesty. And if Republicans even consider the idea of compromising on reform before we have real security, this problem will persist.

Over nearly four years under the Biden-Harris administration, we’ve seen record-breaking numbers of illegal border crossings.

And with that wave of illegal crossings has come a wave of problems for the nation.

As Mr. Homan wrote in an op-ed two years ago, as of then, 56 foreign nationals on the terrorist watch list attempted to enter the country. That number is now in the hundreds. Fentanyl smuggled across the border has led to a nationwide surge in overdoses since the Trump administration, more than doubling across the country and quadrupling in Texas.

What’s more, innocent civilians are dying at the hands of gangs of illegal aliens such as Tren de Aragua.
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The Biden open borders policy has led to an invasion of illegals with the help of the Mexican drug cartels.   While Texas has been doing things to limit the invasion the Biden administration has been AWOL on the problem and other states were not as aggressive as Texas.  Between 10 and 20 million illegals have entered the US during the Biden administration.  That is one of the reasons voters supported Trump in 2024.  Homan is serious about border security so there is hope that he can get it under control.

See also:

House Passes Immigrant Detention Bill That'd Be Trump's First Law to Sign

And:

 Trump Signs Executive Order Suspending Migrant Entry at Southern Border

And:

 Pentagon to Send 1,500 Active-Duty Troops to Aid Border Patrol in Immigration Enforcement

'All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places in which they came...'

And:

 Trump’s Mass Deportation Operation Begins with Over 300 Criminal Aliens Rounded Up on Day One

And:

 BREAKING: Trump Signs Executive Order Suspending Physical Entry of Immigrants at Southern Border.

And:

 'Massive shift' in support for deportation of illegal aliens, says CNN pollster

And:

 New Southern Border Encounters Numbers Under Trump Are In... and Wow!

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“Can you give me the latest numbers on the border?” asked Fox News host Lawrence Jones, after playing a clip of Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes promising to fight Trump’s deportation efforts and calling ICE detention centers "concentration camps."

"Absolutely. Look, the greatest president in my lifetime, he’s back. Because in two days, the last 24 hours, total apprehensions on the southwest border: 766. Compare that to the 10 to 12,000 Biden had at one time," Homan said. “CBP One releases: zero. CHNV—Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela — releases: zero. Total of 766 across the entire Southwest border. That is a game changer.”
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