02.09.2024

e-Newsletter: Week of February 9th

Good Evening,

Every once and awhile we have some good news, and the good news is the disastrous Senate border deal was blocked this week on the Senate floor. My views on this bill have not been ambiguous. It is a terrible piece of legislation that does absolutely nothing to secure our southern border, but rather props Democrats up on a pedestal to keep manufacturing this crisis. Texans who are facing the brunt of Biden’s open borders want real change and action, but this administration has consistently proven that they are unwilling to end this national security and humanitarian crisis. If the president wanted to secure the border with an executive action, he would have already done it. He simply doesn’t want to.

“The entire purpose of this bill is to give political camouflage for Democrats running in November. The objective of this bill was to do nothing … to secure the border, but to let every Democrat running for office say, ‘Gosh, I wanted to secure the border, but those mean Republicans wouldn't.’ This is all about talking points to deceive voters. … It's an utter lie.”

The Senate’s border package was a failure on two fronts – policy-wise and politically. When it comes to policy, it would have codified the failed catch and release policies and given billions of dollars to NGOs to normalize the influx of 1.8 million illegal aliens each year. Politically, it is being used as political ammunition for Democrats to claim that they tried to get a deal, but the cruel Republicans blocked it. This is exactly what Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden want to keep up their failing charade to the American people.

“This whole thing has been a disaster from the very beginning. … It codifies Joe Biden's open borders, catch and release—the cause of this crisis. … Not only that, it normalizes 5,000 illegal immigrants a day. That works out to 1.8 million a year. … It gives those illegal immigrants work permits, giving them lawyers paid for by the taxpayers, it gave billions of dollars to sanctuary cities to keep their policies going, and it gives billions of dollars to left wing nonprofit organizations that are bringing the illegal immigrants in, so it funds the process.”

The Biden administration is more focused on funding aid to secure Ukraine’s border before prioritizing the security of our own broken border. I am committed to supporting aid to Ukraine, but I will remain steadfast in my commitment to addressing the border crisis we are facing at home first.

“It is important that Russia loses. It is important that Putin loses, but it is more important that we secure our own border and defend our nation. … I am more than willing to fund aid to Ukraine. I voted for every military aid fund built for Ukraine so far, but I will fund aid to Ukraine after we secure our own border. … That seems to be a common-sense position, [and] it’s certainly the position of Texans back home.”

As we continue to work towards addressing the crisis at our southern border and administering foreign aid, I am glad that my colleagues were able to reach a bipartisan compromise and are marking up the Federal Aviation Authorization (FAA) reauthorization. It has been a long road with many delays since we started working on this bill early last year. We have faced significant challenges in the aviation industry and the traveling public has been acutely clear that we have a strained air travel system that requires effective oversight, modernization, and expertise to make our aviation system safer and more reliable.

“The FAA is mission is as expansive as it is critical. Since we began working on this bill early last year, the challenges facing the aviation industry and the traveling public have been acutely clear—a strained air travel system that needs a modern air traffic system, an FAA workforce that must have the technical expertise to conduct effective oversight of manufacturers and airlines, as well as technical experts who can help in the certification of new and novel technologies.”

Rest assured, I will not back down until our southern border is secure. God Bless!

Keep Texas Strong,