A section of the U.S.-Mexico border wall near El Paso, Texas, on June 6, 2024. (Photo by Ariana Figueroa/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader John Thune joined a handful of other Republican senators at the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday to highlight the president’s signed tax cuts and spending package passed last year that allocated billions for immigration enforcement.
This was followed by the press conference in McAllen, Texas a federal immigration agent shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday and two people were shot by Border Patrol agents overdue Thursday in Portland, Oregon.
Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, praised the tax cuts and spending package enacted last summer also provided for “additional reinforcements,” such as hiring more Border Patrol agents and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
On Jan. 3, ICE announced it had hired 12,000 up-to-date officers, more than doubling its force from 10,000 agents to 22,000. Thousands more are expected to be hired.
The bill passed by the Republican Party also included $4.1 billion for Customs and Border Protection to hire 5,000 Customs officers and 3,000 Border Patrol agents over the next four years.
Thune said because migration has slowed at the southern border, it is time for President Donald Trump to shift his focus to immigration reform. CBP data The most recent report available, from November, shows that the total number of apprehensions at the southwest border slowed to 7,350 that month.
“I think President Trump is probably the president best equipped to lead immigration reform efforts in his country to restore better-paying jobs and opportunities for people coming to the country legally,” Thune said. “We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws, and we have to make sure we enforce our laws, and that’s where it starts.”
The Trump administration has continued and moved toward aggressive mass deportation efforts throughout the interior of the country revoked the legal status of more than 1.5 million immigrants since he took office in January last year.
Thune added that the GOP bill, known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” also allocated billions for border security.
“By passing the One Big, Beautiful Act … we have more resources down here, not just for the physical infrastructure, for the wall, but also for this virtual infrastructure, for technology and counter-drone technology, all of these things that allow the Border Patrol to do their job,” he said.
Thune was joined by Whip John Barrasso of Wyoming and Sens. John Cornyn of Texas, Ashley Moody of Florida, Jon Husted of Ohio, Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska.
Rounds said the southern border has undergone “a remarkable transformation” under the Trump administration.
“There is no country that can be a superpower or even free if it cannot defend its own borders,” Rounds said.
Cornyn also emphasized that the bill would reimburse up to $13.5 billion to border states that spent money on immigration enforcement. He said Texas will get $11 billion of that money.
