A growing health crisis linked to the open border had Republicans calling on the Department of Homeland Security to return to Trump-era policies.
As if waves of foreign nationals living off of taxpayer money including thousands of unvetted violent criminals weren’t enough of a problem, rising rates of Tuberculosis prompted a new call to seal the southern border. Leading the charge, Utah Sen. Mike Lee (R) specifically pressed impeached DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to work toward reinstating the Remain-in-Mexico policy as well as Title 42.
“Due to your negligence and refusal to enforce our current laws, tuberculosis (TB) is rapidly spreading through the millions of unscreened illegal immigrants released into the interior of the United States, putting American lives and health at severe risk,” read the letter co-signed by Republican Sens. Roger Marshall of Kansas and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.
Citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that attributed a 16% rise in TB from 2022 to 2023, amounting to 9,615 cases, the senators blamed Mayorkas’ mismanagement for continuing to “jeopardize the health and safety of American citizens.”
After extensions, Title 42, a holdover policy from former President Donald Trump that allowed for expedited deportations out of concern for the spread of COVID-19, had expired in May 2023 while President Joe Biden had nixed the Remain-in-Mexico policy that had forced asylum seekers to wait outside the United States until their court date.
“Despite this increasing human health risk, you have turned what was once border security into a rubber-stamp for any individual seeking access to the interior,” wrote the senators. “Rather than requiring immigrants to apply for status prior to arriving at the border and undergo health screenings, your policies encourage immigrants to unlawfully enter the interior with no meaningful processing, screening, or security analysis.”
“There can be no doubt that your administration’s failure to enforce the law is the cause for the dramatic and dangerous rise of TB in the U.S.,” they added as the letter referred to the top seven originating nations of foreign nationals which all had “significantly higher TB cases than the U.S.”
While the letter posed questions about what if any screening was taking place for diseases and if referrals were being made to the Department of Health and Human Services, Lee said in a statement, “The Biden-Harris administration’s destruction of America’s southern border has resulted in violent crime, human trafficking, drug smuggling, and now a surge in a disease that was declining for nearly three decades before they took power. Secretary Mayorkas must answer for his part in this disaster.”
Likewise, Tuberville pointed to the devastation of the Biden-Harris administration when he said, “For the past 4 years, Joe Biden and [Vice President] Kamala Harris have willfully opened our borders, allowing millions of criminals, murderers, drug dealers, and terrorists to flood into our country unchecked.”
“As a result, innocent Americans like Laken Riley and Jocelyn Nungaray have been brutally murdered by illegal aliens. But it doesn’t stop there — there have been no health screening of these populations. Since the creation of the administration’s illegal parole programs, we have seen a 16% rise in Tuberculosis cases between 2022 and 2023 alone,” he went on. “How many more Americans have to needlessly lose their lives before the Biden-Harris administration will take the open border seriously?”
Similarly, Marshall stated, “When Secretary Mayorkas became the Homeland Security Secretary, he solemnly vowed to protect the United States. He has failed. Millions of illegal aliens have crossed our southern border, spreading not only crime but also deadly diseases like tuberculosis that can threaten the lives of American citizens. We cannot allow Secretary Mayorkas to put the American people at risk.”
The senators requested Mayorkas respond no later than Nov. 13, 2024.
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