(The Center Square) – South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds is one of seven senators, including James Risch, R-Idaho, sponsoring the WALL Act, which eliminates illegal immigrant tax subsidies and uses the funds to finish the wall at the Mexican border.
President Joe Biden stopped construction of the wall with an executive order on the first day of his administration. The president said he would allow the Department of Homeland Security to close some unfinished gaps in Arizona.
Former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey placed containers at a gap at the Morelos Dam area of the Yuma sector of the wall. The containers were removed, but as of this week, little action has been taken at the site.
“Our immigration system has been broken for years, but the Biden administration’s policies have created a crisis at our southern border,” Rounds said. “Congress must take action if we are ever to find a long-term solution to strengthen our borders, fix the current border crisis and make certain our legal immigration system adequately meets our workforce needs.”
Other lawmakers sponsoring the WALL Act are Sens. Katie Britt, R-Ala., John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Mike Braun, R-Ind., Ted Cruz, R-Texas, James Risch, R-Idaho and Roger Wicker, R-Miss.
“We need to seal and secure the border – at ports of entry and between them – through a combination of physical infrastructure, technology, equipment, and personnel,” Britt said in a news release. “An invaluable piece of this equation is finishing the wall on our southern border.”
The WALL Act is part of a four-package bill that addresses the nation’s border crisis. Rounds is also co-sponsoring a resolution that would acknowledge a “crisis at the border,” he said in a news release.
Also included is the “Keep Our Communities Safe Act.” The bill would end a policy that releases detainees in six months if no country accepts them from deportation, according to Rounds.
The fourth bill would require migrants seeking asylum to do so at a U.S. embassy in Mexico or Canada.