U.S. Rep. Morgan Luttrell: Securing the Southern Border
May 3, 2024 | Washington, D.C.
As the border crisis escalates, President Biden continues to refuse to enact common sense policies and curb the tide of illegal immigration. Approximately 137,000 migrants were encountered crossing the border illegally in March alone, bringing the total of illegal immigrant encounters to more than 1 million for the first half of fiscal year 2024.
On April 4th, Congressman Luttrell introduced the Emerging Innovative Border Technologies Act. This bipartisan legislation will require the Department of Homeland Security to submit a plan to Congress to identify, integrate, and deploy new, innovative, advanced technologies to enhance or address capability gaps in border security operations.
“As cartels and foreign adversary operations become more sophisticated amidst the ongoing border crisis, the United States must deploy the latest and most advanced technologies available to our borders to disrupt these threats,” said Congressman Luttrell. “I’m proud to introduce this bipartisan legislation with my colleague, Representative Correa, that aims to combat and neutralize threats at our borders. I’ll continue to push for effective measures to safeguard our country and enforce our laws.”
An often-forgotten victim of President Biden’s open border policies are the migrant children who are smuggled across the border – many of them victims of sex trafficking. On April 8th, Congressman Luttrell sent a letter to Department of Health and Human Services and to the Office of Refugee Resettlement addressing concerns over their failure to properly ensure the safety of unaccompanied children.
Congressman Luttrell wrote, “This state of disarray has led ORR to cut corners in ensuring appropriate sponsor vetting. In a rush to move children out of government custody, caseworkers are passing off countless minors into the hands of unproperly vetted sponsors with news reports revealing unaccompanied migrant children falling into instances of exploitation, trafficking, and working in dangerous jobs that violate child labor laws.”
You can find more details and read the letter in full here. Highlighting just how critical this issue is, recent reports show more children are crossing the border on their own than ever before, and thousands are ending up doing dangerous, illegal jobs.
Congressman Luttrell also penned an op-ed in the Huntsville Item discussing several pieces of legislation he recently introduced to secure our southern border.
Holding Mayorkas Accountable
Despite the Senate’s failure to impeach Secretary Mayorkas for his inability to perform the duties of his office, Congressman Luttrell is committed to holding the Biden Administration’s ineffective officials accountable.
On April 16th, Congressman Luttrell pressed Secretary Mayorkas on the minimal funding that DHS is requesting for new AI (Artificial Intelligence) technologies. This tech will be instrumental in helping Border Patrol Agents analyze data in child sexual exploitation cases. In short, Secretary Mayorkas’ answer was telling — the Secretary knows we need more funding and manpower to address every angle of the border crisis.