LANSING, Mich. — Sen. Joseph Bellino is sponsoring a resolution calling on President Joe Biden to protect Americans and local communities by reversing his failed open-border policies.
“The United States is facing a border security crisis that is killing Americans and endangering our communities,” said Bellino, R-Monroe. “My resolution condemns the national security and public safety crisis and urges the president to end his administration’s open-border policies that have allowed fentanyl to saturate our nation and take too many of our neighbor’s lives.
“Change is urgently needed. This resolution mirrors one passed by Congress last month — with bipartisan support — to implore the Biden administration to use the tools already at its disposal to end the border crisis and protect all Americans.”
The resolution notes, “In each month since February 2021, the first full month of the Biden administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has had more than 100,000 encounters with illegal immigrants along the southwest border, with that number topping 300,000 in December 2023 alone. The total number of encounters with illegal immigrants along the southwest border during the first three years of the Biden administration exceeds 7 million.”
Bellino said the rate at which known and suspected terrorists are being encountered along the southwest border has drastically increased under the Biden administration.
“From October 2020 to last month, the U.S. Border Patrol encountered 331 individuals on the Terrorist Screening Dataset between ports of entry along the southern border — an increase of over 2,900%,” Bellino said.
The resolution is part of the Strong Borders, Safe Communities plan introduced by Senate Republicans. The plan also includes legislation to increase penalties for the creation, manufacturing, delivery, or possession of fentanyl and to require every Michigan community to enforce state and federal immigration laws.
In 2023, more than 27,000 pounds of fentanyl was seized at the border — an 860% increase compared to 2019 and enough to kill millions of Americans. Approximately 3,000 Michigan residents die each year due to overdoses.
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