All Quiet on the Southern Front, but Congress Will Need to Act to Keep it that Way

Four years of utter chaos at our southern border, resulting in millions of illegal aliens streaming into our country, came to a screeching halt in January 2025. Within weeks of taking office, President Trump slowed the influx of illegal aliens to a relative trickle using the exact same presidential authority his predecessor claimed did not exist.

The question of whether we can control our borders has now been definitively answered. The question of whether they will continue to be secure come January 2029 is still an open one. The same loopholes in our laws that allowed President Biden to allow – and, in some cases, transport – large numbers of illegal aliens into the country, remain. They are there for any future anti-borders administration to exploit.

The Trump administration and the bicameral Republican majority in Congress have largely fulfilled their promises to restore order at the border and begin removing millions of people who are here illegally, including fully funding that effort. However, Congress has fallen short on its promise to make sure we never see a repeat of the disastrous policies of the Biden administration. In fact, with just four months to go in the 119^th Congress, they have barely gotten out of the starting blocks.

A key promise of the 2024 campaign that swept Republicans into control of the White House and Congress was passage of a comprehensive bill that effectively eliminates the ability of any future president to ignore immigration enforcement and substitute his or her own policies in place.

That bill, the Secure the Border Act, H.R. 2, was passed by the House of Representatives in 2023 but died in the Senate which was then under Democratic control. H.R. 2 included provisions that would prevent large-scale abuse of our asylum policies, end wholesale “catch-and-release” of illegal aliens and constrain the Executive Branch’s ability to parole unlimited numbers of illegal aliens into the country.

An updated version of that bill, now renumbered H.R. 9773, was voted out of the House Judiciary Committee in July just before the full chamber took off for a four-week recess. A floor vote on H.R. 9773 must be among the first items on the House’s agenda when they return to Washington.

Passage in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to avoid a filibuster, is not guaranteed. But, at the very least, Majority Leader John Thune must force every member of that chamber to go on record in support or opposition to border and immigration enforcement legislation that is supported by the vast majority of Americans.

Prior to the summer recess, a small number of congressional Republicans expressed their desire to include amendments to the bill that would grant amnesty to certain groups of illegal aliens present in the United States. It is an idea that enjoys far less public support and almost none among their party’s base. For those who may have forgotten the lessons of history – that rewarding illegal behavior inevitably engenders more of it – Spain provided a timely reminder of both the folly and the dangers of illegal alien amnesties.

In April of this year, the radical socialist government of President Pedro Sanchez offered amnesty to what they estimated would be about 500,000 illegal aliens. To date, some 1.3 million illegal aliens have applied. Sorting out the valid claims from the fraudulent ones is an overwhelming task that will inevitably result in rubberstamping approvals.

Equally predictable, after the promise of amnesty – or at least greater tolerance for illegal immigration – the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, population about 85,000, was stormed by an estimated 70,000 to 80,000 illegal aliens who crossed the border from Morocco. The crisis triggered by a rogue administration in Madrid quickly became a problem for the entire European Union, many of whose member states are already grappling with their own immigration crises.

While the United States is currently on the right path when it comes to mass illegal immigration, there must be an urgency to take action ensuring that we will remain on that path. There is no guarantee that, come 2027, Republicans will be in full, or even partial, control of Congress.

Making sure that we never return to the ruinous anti-borders policies that were the hallmark of the Biden administration must be addressed in this session of Congress. Over the coming months, the president and his party’s leadership must devote full effort to enacting legislation that would prevent any future administration from willfully flouting its responsibilities to secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws.