U.S. Reps. Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Mike Turner (R-OH) on Monday unveiled a bill that would provide states with federal grant monies to erect physical barriers along their southern borders.
“The Biden administration’s refusal to secure our border has led to terrorism threat levels unlike anything we’ve seen since 9/11,” said Rep. McCaul, chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee. “Our bill would provide states with the resources to do what President Biden should have done long ago: close the holes along the border and stop the constant flow of threats into the interior.”
Rep. McCaul sponsored the Border Security and Enforcement Block Grant Act of 2024, H.R. 8256, with original cosponsor Rep. Turner to direct the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to establish the Border Security and Enforcement Block Grant Program, which would help states construct, maintain, improve, and repair physical border barriers along their southern borders.
Rep. Turner pointed out that since Biden took office, roughly seven million migrants have unlawfully crossed the southern border into the United States.
“The legislation that Chairman McCaul and I have introduced would inhibit the flow of illegal migration by providing Southwestern states with federal grant funding to construct or repair existing physical barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border,” said Rep. Turner, chairman of the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
“The porous state of the southern border represents a significant threat to our country’s security posture,” the congressman added. “To make certain that our communities are protected against violent criminals and illicit drugs like fentanyl, we must secure the border.”