Americans should be able to live peacefully without constant fear of crime or incursions across our borders. A strong justice system enforces existing U.S. law, prosecutes criminals, secures our borders, and preserves our national identity. America’s current border crisis and the level of crime in many cities are out of control, and the human costs are staggering. The Heritage enterprise will expose the threats posed by criminals and illegal immigrants and take steps at the federal and state levels to restore the rule of law.
President Joe Biden has created chaos on the Southern border through a total lack of enforcement of our immigration laws and the willful and deliberate transportation of illegal immigrants throughout the interior of the United States. Some of this can be addressed, even in a divided government, through congressional budget appropriations and oversight. However, it is also important that conservatives develop legislative solutions that enjoy consensus and can be signed into law by a conservative President in 2025.
The Heritage enterprise will work to secure the border, enforce our laws, and restore integrity to our immigration system.
Heritage will work to ensure that one of the first bills introduced in the House of Representatives not only secures our border, but would actually stop the current border crisis and prevent future crises. Per our strong coalition letter, this includes resuming construction of the border wall system that U.S. Customs and Border Protection requested, mandating full implementation of the Remain in Mexico program, ending abuse of the parole authority, ending the disparate treatment of unaccompanied alien children, terminating the 20-day detention limit, and raising asylum standards to prevent fraud.
We will oppose debates on amnesty and “comprehensive immigration reform” because such discussions only encourage more illegal immigration.
We will push to increase Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s ability to locate, detain, and remove illegal immigrants and make it more difficult for future Presidents to prevent enforcement of the law. We will do this by promoting legislation to increase ICE’s funding, limit the Administration’s authority on certain immigration matters, and require removal of those who are illegally in the United States.
We will encourage the Congress to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in the event he does not resign.
And we will work with state and local governments to encourage the appropriate use of their authority to discourage illegal immigration, including by briefing states on the research and policy recommendations contained in Heritage’s report, “20 Ways States Can Prevent Illegal Immigration.”
We will work to reduce crime that results from illegal immigration and from rogue left-wing, soft-on-crime prosecutors.
By significantly reducing illegal immigration, we can naturally reduce the number of completely avoidable crimes committed by illegal aliens against American citizens and those who are legally in the United States. To increase public support for enforcement of our immigration laws, we will publicize the stories of victims of criminal illegal aliens. We will also work to pass legislation in several states for states to catalog and issue regular reports to the public and legislators on the numbers and types of crimes committed by illegal aliens in their jurisdictions.
We will also publicize the stories of victims to highlight the lack of justice that many of these victims and their families receive from rogue prosecutors. We will expose the link between rogue prosecutors and the current spike in crime in their jurisdictions. We will request congressional hearings to expose the damage these prosecutors are causing in their communities.
Heritage provides the knowledge resources to equip lawmakers, law enforcement, and communities with the information they need to secure our borders and reduce crime. Select studies from our experts can be found below:
- The Administration Needs to Increase Visa Sanctions on Russia
- Twenty-First Century Illicit Drugs and Their Discontents: An Introduction
- DHS Commits Regulatory Overreach by Relaxing Work Authorization for Foreign Students Due to “Severe Economic Hardship”
- Congress Should Prohibit Biden Administration’s Asylum Rule
