Congressman Biggs’ Statement on Final Passage of Humanitarian Funding Bill for Border Crisis

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Senate amendment to H.R. 3401, the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Humanitarian Assistance and Security at the Southern Border Act, which passed the Senate 84-8 yesterday. Congressman Biggs voted against this legislation and issued the following statement:

"In passing the Senate's humanitarian funding bill instead of Speaker Pelosi's, we may have won a battle, but we are losing the war to secure our border. Under both the Senate and House versions, Border Patrol and ICE agents and detention facilities will still be woefully underfunded and underequipped. Human traffickers and criminal cartels will still have expansive opportunity to exploit our laws. Catch-and-release policies will be stimulated, expanded, and enshrined under these bills. Congress could have done much more to solve this crisis, and the Senate's draft will not be the cure that solves the crisis on our southern border.

"In our attempt to respond to an escalating – and increasingly fatal – humanitarian crisis at the border, we are quickly forgetting the national security issues central to this situation. Hundreds of miles along the border are open for human, drug, and sex traffickers to cross unabated. The illicit drug trade permeates every community across the country, devastating countless families. Violence from the Mexican side of the border is spilling over into the United States. Border ranchers live in fear due to the never-ending cartel traffic. Why isn't Congress debating these issues that are incentivizing the humanitarian crisis? We must find a solution that ends this crisis and prioritizes Americans before illegal aliens and cartels."

Congressman Andy Biggs is a second-term Representative from Arizona's Fifth Congressional District, representing parts of Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, and Queen Creek. Congressman Biggs is a member of the House Judiciary and Science, Space, and Technology committees. He lives with his wife, Cindy, in Gilbert.