Immigration

Today in a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) questioned Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, slamming the Biden Administration after new reports revealing a sharp rise in trafficking and abuse of migrant children under his leadership.  "You were crowing about the fact that you treated children so well, and yet we find tens of thousands of children who are forced to work as slaves...

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) wrote to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Administrator David Pekoske demanding answers on why illegal aliens have been allowed to present arrest warrants and notices of deportation as valid identification to pass checkpoints and board commercial airplanes. Last week, a TSA spokesman told Fox News that, “For non-citizens and non-U.S. nationals who do not otherwise have acceptable forms of ID for presentation at security checkpoints, TSA may also...

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) joined Steve Daines (Mont.) and a group of Senators today in introducing a new amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022 that blocks President Biden’s reported plan to give illegal immigrants up to $450,000 per person in taxpayer dollars for settlements by the U.S. government, totaling upwards of a billion dollars. The news first gained attention at the end of last week. “Joe Biden and his...

U.S. Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), John Kennedy (R-La.), and the nine other Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans wrote to President Joe Biden to oppose his administration’s reported plan to offer illegal immigrants up to $450,000 per person in taxpayer dollars to settle lawsuits resulting from those individuals’ violating U.S. immigration law. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.),...

In light of the massive surge of illegal border crossings reported last week, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), joined by Senators Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas requesting critical information on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s record of apprehensions during the Biden Administration. 

U.S. Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) calling for a full hearing on the current crisis of the southern border. Senate Judiciary Democrats have declined to hold a hearing on the border this Congress, despite the fact that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has apprehended historic numbers of migrants not seen in over 15 years.

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) joined U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in introducing the Securing the Homeland from International Entrants with Life-threatening Diseases (SHIELD) Act to codify the Trump administration’s public health order under Title 42 that required U.S. border officials to promptly remove illegal immigrants to stop the spread of COVID-19. 

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said that President Joe Biden has created a “moral crisis” by sending the message that the U.S. Southern border is open. Senator Hawley said the Senate Democrats’ proposed immigration reform plan would create new loopholes for illegal immigrants and devalue legal immigration. “Our border is in a state of total crisis, and it is a crisis that is affecting every single person in my state and in this country. And I suggest to you we have a moral obligation—and this administration has a moral obligation—to address the crisis it has created at the border, for children, for families, for American citizens, and I’m glad we get to talk about this.

“We are in the middle of a national pandemic, millions of Americans are struggling to make ends meet, and there is a burgeoning crisis at the border. Under conditions like these, this is perhaps the worst imaginable time to gut this important safeguard. By creating a fresh incentive for foreign migrants to surge across our southern border, your actions reflect a profound misunderstanding of the plight of American workers and communities across the country, and threaten to further exacerbate an already severe humanitarian disaster.”

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and eleven Senate colleagues pushed back on a deportation moratorium proposed by President Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which will prevent the removal of the vast majority of illegal immigrants with final orders of removal–including dangerous criminals–from the United States.