On Monday, Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee will unveil a border security package that will increase the number of border officers, restart construction of the border wall and provide additional technology in response to the ongoing crisis on the southern border.

The Border Security Act of 2023 will focus on border security, funding and staffing. Areas such as asylum reform and detention requirements are addressed in a separate law approved by the Judiciary Committee last week. The National Security Committee Bill complements this law.

A committee aide who spoke to reporters ahead of the bill’s introduction said it was meant to honor House Republicans’ commitment to America to keep the country safe and protect the American people.

The bill would restart construction of the border wall, which was largely halted at the start of the Biden administration after years of building work under the Trump administration. The bill would require the Department of Homeland Security to use the already allocated and overdue funds to restart construction. It will also increase Operation Stonegarden’s grants to law enforcement along land and sea borders and provide additional technological upgrades at the border, including two-way radios and license plate readers.

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Separately, it directs the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to increase its staff to at least 22,000 border guard agents from the roughly 19,000 currently serving, and will require them not to serve as processing coordinators. The Biden administration increased the number of agents at the border, but many agents were transferred to the processing of migrants deep into the United States.

The bill also aims to fight the retention of Border Patrol agents whose morale has fallen due to the devastating border crisis by providing retention bonuses to agents. It also requires the administration to release data on a monthly basis, including the number of “fugitives” at the border.

Another piece of the bill restricts use of the controversial CBP One app, which the Biden administration expanded to allow migrants to make appointments at entry points. The Biden administration said the app ensures a streamlined process at the border and encourages migrants to apply for asylum at legal ports of entry rather than entering illegally. However, Republicans have said that it has become a de facto “concierge service” for illegal immigrants.

The legislation will return usage to its original focus during the Trump administration, when it was used for commercial purposes, by removing the ability for migrants to make appointments at ports of entry.

Committee aides said the bill was drafted in close collaboration with the Judiciary Committee, and they believe it has support in the Republican conference — and with a high degree of confidence that it will pass the House.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Majorcas testifies at a House hearing in April 2022. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

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Numerous hawkish immigration groups have urged the Republican leadership to pass the kind of broad border and sanctuary legislation now being introduced by the committees and have come out in support of both bills. Laura Rice, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Border Security and Immigration, on Thursday praised the Judiciary Committee bill as a “bold response” to the migration crisis, highlighting its handling of asylum fraud, steps to end child smuggling and E-Check mandates .

“When the policies put forward by the House Judiciary Committee are fully merged with the House Homeland Security Committee package due next week into a single flagship bill ready for swift passage, the House of Representatives will provide the American people with a strong response to the administration’s actions. Biden. border crisis,” she said.

The committee held a series of high-profile border-related hearings with witnesses including Border Guard Chief Raul Ortiz, who said he disagreed with the decision to stop building the border wall and said the agency had no operational control. borders.

He recently marked 100 days of what he said was a “long overdue” administration oversight, including 230 briefings and meetings, 23 oversight and document request letters, more than a dozen site visits and seven hearings.

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The introduction of the bill occurs before the expiration of Section 42 next month, May 11. Officials fear that the end of the order, which allowed border guards to remove hundreds of thousands of migrants at the border due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will lead to a new influx of migrants in the spring and summer months.

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Republicans in the House and Senate have called for the removal of House Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mallorcas following tense hearings in several committees in recent weeks. The Biden administration has said Congress should instead focus on fixing what it calls the “broken” immigration system.

“Our books are under a shadow ban,” said Nina Perez, a Jacksonville resident and director of anti-restriction organization MomsRising. “They are mired in the administrative process.”

Tracey Pierce, a spokesperson for the Duval School District, said in an email last month that these actions followed the state Department of Education’s guidance. Classes should never have been left without reading materials, he said, as students still had access to approved books and collections. He acknowledged that “a small number of executives briefly closed or over-restricted” media centers and were advised to restore access.

Mr. DeSantis has responded aggressively to criticism over the ban on books in public schools. He dismissed news reports that Duval County Schools removed a headline about baseball player Roberto Clemente as a “joke”, accusing critics of “fabricating” the book ban story.

The book, which refers to the racism Mr. Clemente has faced, was removed and then reinstated in February after being reviewed. Last month, the state education commissioner named John Winter’s Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates Book of the Month for students in grades three through five.

At a press conference last month, Mr. DeSantis stood behind a sign that read “HOAX Book Ban Exposed” and said the state was trying to protect children from pornographic material. The event kicked off with a presentation of books that were reported to be seized in the county, including Gender Queer by Maya Kobabe and “Flamer”, Mike Curato — and highlighted scenes about sexual encounters and masturbation.

“This idea of ​​banning books in Florida, that books are somehow not needed in the library, is a hoax,” Mr. DeSantis said. “And it’s a really nasty hoax because it’s a hoax designed to desecrate and sexualize our children.”

Critics in the state are fighting back. In March, the human rights organization Democracy Forward filed lawsuit with the state on behalf of the Florida Education Association and other groups challenging the rules, alleging they censor educators, limit students’ access to books, and harm public education. Florida’s Reading Freedom Project staged a rally last month in Tallahassee with writers and free speech activists to protest censorship.