Today, Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03), Jared Golden (ME-02), Mary Peltola (AK-AL), Vicente Gonzalez (TX-34), and Don Davis (NC-01) released the following statement after voting in favor of bipartisan national security and border security legislation on Saturday:

“Our national security interests don’t stop at our physical borders. That is why we voted to send more weapons to Ukraine for its fight against Russia. The lesson of Pearl Harbor must not be forgotten: appeasement invites aggression against us. As Speaker Johnson stated last week, we would rather send ‘bullets than American boys.’
 
Beyond defending our allies, we strongly agree with the National Border Patrol Council that Congress and the President must act and bring order to the Southern border. That is why we also voted for H.R. 3602 on Saturday, and why we all voted last month for $19.6 billion for Border Patrol so that it could ramp up its efforts to secure the border.

We are also calling today on President Biden to use the authority given the executive by Congress to immediately reimplement 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(2)(C) and we are calling today on leaders in both the House and Senate to pass legislation to give Border Patrol back the expulsion authority that expired last year.”

Last weekend, Brandon Judd, President of the National Border Patrol Council, gave the following comment to Fox News:

“We are beyond disappointed that the House would give aid to secure the borders of foreign countries but gave nothing to allow the Border Patrol to secure the safety of the United States. There’s nothing more backwards. I wouldn’t have even expected taxpayers’ dollars. They could have given us policy, and that would have been enough.”