Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Elise Stefanik joined her House Republican colleagues to launch the Northern Border Security Caucus. For two years, Stefanik has warned against the impact of Joe Biden’s Southern Border Crisis on the Northern Border, which has caused an 846% increase in illegal migrant encounters at the Swanton Sector in Upstate New York.
Below is a transcript of her full remarks:
Every state is a border state. Every district is a border district due to Joe Biden’s border crisis. Every community across America is a border community.
I have raised this issue for two years as Joe Biden’s border crisis has been raging on the Southern Border. This has had a direct impact on the communities that I represent along the Northern Border in New York's 21st Congressional District.
There have been forced no-notice Border Patrol deployments over and over again to our Southern Border to try to address the surge of illegal crossings on our Southern Border. That has left the Northern Border without the personnel, without the border patrol that we need.
In just the first four months of this fiscal year, illegal encounters in the Swanton Sector, which includes six counties in my district, increased by over 800%.
My office is in direct touch with numerous families along the Northern Border who are documenting illegals crossing their own properties.
Today, I had the opportunity to meet with local border patrol leaders and heard directly about transnational cartel activity along the Northern Border. This is something that people in my district would have never even dreamed would happen, and it's happening today because of Joe Biden's border crisis.
We know Joe Biden bears responsibility, and it took our local Border Patrol leadership calling for agents to voluntarily deploy to our Northern Border for the Biden Administration to finally admit that they had a problem.
Today, I led my colleagues in sending a letter to DHS Secretary Mayorkas calling on him to take immediate action and present his plan to secure our Northern Border.
Our taxpayers, brave border patrol officers, and Northern Border communities should no longer have to bear the brunt of this crisis.
I also want to thank my colleague from the Southern Border, Tony Gonzales, who is here today.
He has welcomed so many of our colleagues on Congressional Delegations to his district to see firsthand the border security crisis, something that Joe Biden and House Democrats want to continue ignoring.
I am excited to have here today a constituent, a leader when it comes to standing up for border patrol officers, and I'm going to introduce him next. His name is Brandon Budlong, he is president of the NPPC, the Border Patrol Council Buffalo Sector Local 2724. So you can hear directly from our brave border patrol officers about the impact that this is having on their daily lives and their ability to do their job.
Watch Local President of the National Border Patrol Council 2724 Brandon Budlong’s full remarks here.
