Rep. Claudia Tenney, RN.Y., has introduced legislation to use increased IRS spending to strengthen the border.
Tenney told Fox News Digital that his bill, the DIRECT Act, would redirect new IRS funds to the border to combat the inflow of drugs and illegal immigrants.
Titled “Diverting IRS Resources to the Demanding Crisis Through the Border Security (DIRECT) Funding Act,” the legislation comes as the GOP hits Democrats with more than $80 billion in IRS funding. through the Inflation Reduction Law.
“What my bill simply says is don’t hire 87,000 new IRS agents… It can be directed to the border where we really need the assistance,” the former tax attorney shared. “Border security, Customs and Border Patrol, they’re just dealing with unprecedented numbers, numbers like we’ve never seen in our country.”
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US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported an all-time high of 230,000 migrant encounters at the US-Mexico border in October, including 64,000 migrants who crossed without being arrested. The numbers show an increase of 1.3% over September, according to CBP.
Migrants get off a dump truck.
(Texas DPS)
“People crossing our border illegally undermines the rule of law, it undermines our immigration system, it undermines our sovereignty as a country, and it undermines the taxpayers, because they, again, are footing the bill for all of this,” Tenney shared.
President Biden defended his decision not to visit the US-Mexico border while in Arizona on Tuesday, saying “there are more important things.”
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The congresswoman said her response is “par for Biden’s course.” The president “does not care about the fate of … the Americans at the border, the border towns and the people who live there who are also suffering, and the taxpayers who pay for all of this,” she added.
President Biden speaks about his economic agenda after touring the construction site of a new computer chip plant for the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company in Phoenix, Arizona.
(AP)
But the Biden administration says it will appeal a federal court decision issued last month that blocked a policy authorized under Title 42 of a broader 1944 law covering public health.
The policy allowed for the rapid removal of asylum seekers at the border at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and is set to continue until the end of this month.
BIDEN ADMINISTRATOR APPEALS DECISION BLOCKING TITLE 42 BORDER PROTOCOL
Tenney says she knows a lot of Democrats who are concerned about what’s happening at the border.
Illegal immigrants gather at the southern border of the United States.
(FoxNews)
Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, expressed his concerns Wednesday on “Your World.” “When Title 42 goes away … you will see a large number of people coming to my city,” he said.
About a dozen other Republicans have joined the legislation as original co-sponsors.