Border Security

As the chart above shows, the peak of the first wave of migrants occurred in 2014. President Obama correctly called it a humanitarian crisis and his Homeland Security secretary said it was a "bad day" when apprehensions exceeded 1,000.

Responding to the second wave in 2018 and 2019, President Trump enacted polices and entered into agreements with Mexico and Guatemala that greatly reduced the migration of children and families. Under Senator Johnson's leadership as Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee from 2015-2020, Senator Johnson's committee was able to:

• Established quantifiable, objective metrics for DHS to use to measure border security (Border Security Metrics Act of 2015, included in the NDAA).
• Held more than 30 hearings and released two staff reports examining the factors that have led to our failure to secure our borders, including one examining lessons we can learn from Israel’s approach to border security, aviation security, and cybersecurity.
• During the humanitarian crisis at the border in 2018, the committee held more than 20 bipartisan staff briefings, several member briefings, and also took staff delegation trips to the border, culminating in a majority staff report in 2018 examining the staggering increase in family unit illegal border crossings from 2015-2019, and providing recommendations to address the problem.
• Developed a proposal in 2019 for a streamlined process called Operation Safe Return that became the basis for two DHS expedited processing programs at our border that have helped reduce holding time for illegal crossings and make the process more effective and efficient.

Unfortunately, under the Biden Administration, or the third wave, border security is routinely experiencing daily apprehensions over 4,000.  This is a direct result of the Biden Administration's policies. Biden transition officials asked Trump Homeland Security officials how to prevent a border crisis. They were explicitly told to keep the Migrant Protection Protocols (a.k.a. Remain in Mexico) and other agreements with Mexico and Central American countries in place. Upon assuming office, instead of heeding that advice, President Biden completely dismantled the very policies that had ended the surge. The border is now in a crisis that far exceeds anything during the previous administrations and the media is silent.