On Thursday, Congressman Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) introduced legislation in the House of Representatives proposing a 10-year moratorium on all immigration into the United States.
Gosar’s remarks: In a statement released the following day, Gosar explained, “With millions of Americans including our veterans who are now unemployed, homeless, or living in poverty we need to take care of one another before we allow millions to migrate here. Time to pause migration to America and figure out how to put the American people first.”
The bill comes in the wake of a report by the Department of Homeland Security indicating 180,641 encounters with illegal aliens along the Southwest land border in May (up from 23,237 in May 2020) and 188,829 encounters in June (up from 33,049 in June 2020).
“With the destruction of President Trump’s solid immigration enforcement, and current disregard and violation of existing federal law, Mr. Biden has unleashed the most severe border and humanitarian crisis in United States history,” wrote Gosar.
Biden’s remarks: The Biden administration defends the shift in policy as part of a comprehensive overhaul in the U.S. approach to immigration that addresses the root causes of the issue.
In an executive order dated February 2, 2021, soon after Biden entered office, the President stated, “The United States is also a country with borders and with laws that must be enforced. Securing our borders does not require us to ignore the humanity of those who seek to cross them. The opposite is true. We cannot solve the humanitarian crisis at our border without addressing the violence, instability, and lack of opportunity that compel so many people to flee their homes.
The big picture: Immigration is a delicate issue for the Biden administration, with a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research in May estimating that 54 percent of Americans disapprove of his handling of the issue, as reported by The Epoch Times.
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