John Kirby, a retired rear admiral best known now as the White House national security communications advisor, attempted to put Americans at ease this week when he told a gathering of media in Washington that President Joe Biden understands the dangers of an open border.
"The president absolutely believes that along that border we do have significant national security concerns that have to be met," Kirby stated.
The question centered on HR 2, the bill passed by House Republicans last May – almost a year ago – that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has yet to bring to the floor for a discussion and vote.
Among the many requirements of the Secure The Border Act of 2023 is that the Department of Homeland Security, under the direction of Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas, would resume building a border wall with the specifications in place prior to Jan. 20, 2021. It would also include limits on asylum eligibility and would require employers to use an electronic system to verify eligibility of employees.
According to Kirby (right), the national security concerns along the border are Republicans' fault.
"While these concerns are going on, the bill languishes – so what's needed? It's not anything more from the president. What's needed is for Speaker [Mike] Johnson to do his job. Let's get that thing on the floor, and let's get it voted on," he said.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Arizona) scoffs. "If he's talking about HR 2, that's been sitting in the Senate for a year. His own party [isn't] moving it because Joe Biden doesn't want it," Biggs said on Washington Watch Thursday.
Kirby did not address the border authority that rests with his boss, President Biden. Biggs reminded show host Jody Hice that Biden can fix the border just as he weakened it – with the stroke of a pen.
"I have a list of 13 executive orders that the president issued of about 80 that basically emasculated the border policies of Donald Trump that brought the border under its most secure situation in probably 50 years. [Biden] put those in place … he could go back and rescind those orders," Biggs argued.
Title 8 of the U.S. Code deals with the country's immigration laws. Under Title 8, repeated illegal border crossings carry escalating criminal penalties. And as the Arizona lawmaker pointed out, Title 8 remains in place.
"There is a statute specifically in Title 8 that says if there's an emergency on the border or the president deems it an emergency, it doesn't even require Congress to act," Biggs explained.
"If he thinks there's an emergency on the border, he can take actions to secure and control and close that border. He needs nothing else. Title 8 didn't change. What's changed has been Joe Biden's decision not to actually implement the law under Title 8, which is the law that governs border security."
DHS frees migrants on the path to deportation
While Biden wrestles with security concerns, according to Kirby, his top man on the border has allowed more than 200,000 deportation cases to fall by the wayside simply by failing to file the necessary paperwork for the courts.
Without a proper filing from the feds, courts lack authority to hear immigration cases, which in the last few years have often involved enormous numbers of illegal aliens seeking asylum, Judicial Watch reported last month.
The report was issued by the nonpartisan Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University.
"They've wrongfully dismissed cases. This is a broader systemic problem within DHS in that Mayorkas is not actually enforcing laws," said Rep. Biggs. "So, you have this aspect over here where you have wrongful dismissals, so we're looking at that. [Judiciary Committee] Chairman [Jim] Jordan is all over that.
"We're also looking at reports that I've received from other intel and whistleblowers that have indicated that DHS is actually providing these parole documents to far greater numbers than the Biden administration is reporting," he added.
Biggs: GOP turned loose of leverage
What is most unfortunate about national security, according to Biggs, is that House Republicans have failed to act themselves. He finds it unsurprising when Democrats take no action that would oppose their political ambitions. But Republicans, albeit with a slim House majority, are in control of government funding.
"We have HR 2, which we've tried to leverage to get on spending bills and everything else, but we've been thwarted as we've tried to do that. Just think about it. This is a lawless administration, particularly as it comes to the border. Passing more laws isn't going to work. The best leverage we ever had were the spending bills," Biggs noted.
Republicans, though, were divided on their willingness to carry their leverage through to a government shutdown. As a result, a $1.2 trillion spending bill was passed late last month.
"The Founding Fathers gave us [the House of Representatives] control of the purse strings. We should have been using that to leverage securing the border, but our leadership didn't want to go that way, and many of my colleagues didn't want to go that way either. That was the answer," Biggs said.
As a result, said the congressman, "we're kind of stuck … in this really difficult spot, because the sheer numbers [crossing the border] are even higher right now than is being reported by the Biden administration."
