Rep. Boebert Introduces Resolution Censuring Biden Over Border Crisis
FAIR Take | June 2021
On Wednesday, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and over 20 of her colleagues introduced a resolution censuring President Joe Biden over his handling of the current crisis raging at our Southwest border.
The resolution calls for the House to formally censure President Biden over his complete failure to address the border crisis in a meaningful way. The resolution lists 30 points outlining the historical role of the President’s duty to ensure the faithful execution of immigration laws passed by Congress, as well as statistics behind the current crisis. It also lists the specific policies which Biden’s administration, and specifically Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, put in place that led to the crisis.
The resolution contains six action items. First, it calls for President Biden to remove Alejandro Mayorkas from his role as Secretary of Homeland Security, a position that FAIR ardently supports. Second, the resolution attacks Biden’s withholding of duly appropriated Congressional funding for the border wall. Third and fourth, it calls on Biden to enforce the nation’s immigration laws as they are written and use all available means to do so. Fifth, it reaffirms the separation of powers as outlined in the U.S. Constitution. And finally, it censures the President for his failure to execute laws as required by the Constitution.
FAIR is in firm support of Rep. Boebert’s censure resolution. Former acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and FAIR Senior Fellow Mark Morgan noted that:
President Biden is currently presiding over the greatest abandonment of immigration enforcement and border security this country has ever seen. Our border is in a historic crisis, solely due to his actions. Representative Lauren Boebert’s resolution would rightly censure President Biden for ignoring immigration laws and refusing to address the crisis, while also calling for him to terminate an open borders radical who leads the very agency I once served in. President Biden can stop the crisis today. It is time for him to put the American people and rule of law first, and restore order at our border.
FAIR President Dan Stein lent his support as well:
President Biden wasted no time in quickly ending the successful immigration policies of his predecessor. These rash decisions have led to a historic border crisis with no end in sight. If current trends hold, CBP will encounter over 1.3 million illegal aliens in the current fiscal year – dwarfing past totals. His Secretary of Homeland Security – open borders amnesty architect Alejandro Mayorkas – has presided over this complete abdication of immigration enforcement. He is unfit for his role, and this resolution rightly calls for his removal and the nomination of someone who will prioritize the safety and security of the American people while faithfully enforcing laws enacted by Congress. Representative Lauren Boebert’s resolution is a well-timed, unified rebuke of President Biden’s abandonment of immigration enforcement that has triggered a crisis, and FAIR urges all members of Congress to support it.
Congress has only censured a sitting president once, when it censured President Andrew Jackson in 1834 over his refusal to hand over private documents to the legislative branch. Due to the current composition of the House, there is no chance that the House would vote to censure President Biden. Yet Rep. Boebert’s censure resolution does send a message to the Biden administration – and to Congressional Democrats – that their approach is not working and deserves a strong rebuke.