Today, Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03), Jared Golden (ME-02), Mary Peltola (AK-AL), and Don Davis (NC-01) released the following statement regarding President Biden’s new executive order on border security:

“This order is an overdue step, but our Southern Border is still not secure. We’ve long demanded President Biden change course and empower the Border Patrol, and he’s finally acting and listening to the law enforcement agents in the field, like we’ve been telling him to do.

But make no mistake: this job is far from over for the President and Congress. To that end, in addition to his action today, President Biden needs to use the authority given to the executive by Congress to immediately reimplement 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(C), and we are again calling on leaders in both the House and Senate to pass legislation to give the Border Patrol back the expulsion authority that expired last year.

Border security must be the top national security priority for President Biden. The President needs to do all he can to restore operational control of our Southern Border, and stop drug cartels from trafficking fentanyl into communities across America.”

In April, after voting for H.R. 3602 to restore operational control at the Southern Border, Reps. Gluesenkamp Perez, Golden, Peltola, and Davis called on the President to utilize his full executive authority to secure the border. They called on the President to utilize his full authority again in May, and are renewing their call today.

In March, all four voted to pass funding for the largest Border Patrol workforce in the nation’s history. Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez also introduced the bipartisan Defending Borders, Defending Democracies Act to secure the Southern Border, provide Border Patrol expulsion authority, and fight the flow of fentanyl entering the United States.