Republican House members are urging Senate leaders to reject three of President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) nominees, warning in a letter Thursday the nominees are “anti-border security” and will promote policies that allow the illegal migration surge to continue.
The letter, spearheaded by Border Security Caucus chairs Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Brian Babin (R-TX) and signed by 29 other House Republicans, asks Senate leaders not to nominate Biden’s picks to lead U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“President Biden’s nominees either helped develop the policies that have produced the crisis or have shown an unwillingness to enforce immigration law. They will not enact the changes necessary to end the crisis,” the Republicans state, citing swelling numbers of illegal migrants.
The Biden nominees the Republicans are raising alarm over are Ur Jaddou for USCIS director, Chris Magnus for CBP commissioner, and Ed Gonzalez for assistant secretary of DHS (ICE director).
CBP reported encountering more than 101,000 illegal migrants in February, more than 173,000 in March, and more than 178,000 in April, totals during Biden’s first three full months in office that far exceed totals under the Trump administration.
The Republicans directly correlate the staggering increases — March, for instance, saw a 403 percent increase over last year; April saw a 944 percent increase — to Biden’s open borders policies and list examples where each of the president’s nominees has advocated for such policies.
“The crisis is happening because of a methodical undoing of successful border security and immigration policies,” the Republicans write as they point to the administration reinstating catch and release, halting border wall construction, ending Remain in Mexico, and scaling back ICE deportations.
Jaddou, whose nomination is backed by the Chamber of Commerce, was responsible for reviewing DHS policy as a member of Biden’s transition team and therefore had an intimate role in shaping the administration’s open borders initiatives.
Magnus, the CBP commissioner nominee, is an advocate of sanctuary jurisdictions, which, per the Center for Immigration Studies, embolden illegal migrants, including criminal aliens, by obstructing federal immigration enforcement.
Gonzalez, the pro-immigration sheriff of Harris County, Texas, is Biden’s top pick to head ICE.
Gonzalez in 2017 terminated his county’s 287(g) agreement — which allowed local law enforcement to turn over criminal aliens to ICE — with the very organization he is now expected to oversee. The Texas sheriff also made headlines in January after reports revealed he sought the release of 1,500 inmates in his county, the majority of whom were “either charged with violent crimes, were illegal aliens with ICE detainers, or had extradition orders on them.”
Biggs said in a statement about Biden’s choices that “the Senate should reject these anti-border security nominees and force President Biden to nominate individuals who are committed to protecting our national security, securing the border, and ending the crisis.”
He added, “The Biden administration must reinstate the policies that were working instead of appeasing open-borders activists.”
Biggs’ and Babin’s letter does not broach the resulting economic damage of the border crisis — which includes wage cuts, spiking real estate costs, and wealth pushed from Midwest states to coasts — which Breitbart News has reported on extensively.
Aside from Biggs and Babin, the other Republicans who signed the letter are Reps. Matt Rosendale (MT), Ted Budd (NC), Greg Steube (FL), Yvette Herrell (NM), Diana Harshbarger (TN), Bill Johnson (OH), Jim Banks (IN), Ann Wagner (MO), Warren Davidson (OH), Glenn Grothman (WI), Barry Moore (AL), Jody Hice (GA), Mo Brooks (AL), John Joyce (PA), Lauren Boebert (CO), Brian Mast (FL), Bill Posey (FL), Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), Randy Weber (TX), Tom McClintock (CA), Bob Good (VA), Lance Gooden (TX), Scott Perry (PA), Madison Cawthorn (NC), Jodey Arrington (TX), Mike Rogers (MI), Jeff Duncan (SC), Victoria Spartz (IN), and Chip Roy (TX).
Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com.