Lora Ries
Testimony Before Committee on Homeland Security / Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement
United States House of Representatives
March 25, 2025
Lora Ries
Border Security and Immigration Center
The Heritage Foundation
My name is Lora Ries and I am the Director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation. The views I express in this testimony are my own and should not be construed as representing any official position of The Heritage Foundation.
When trying to solve a historic problem like the intentional mass illegal migration this country experienced the past four years, it is important to ask the question, “How did we get here?”—not just to fix the problem, but also to avoid repeating it in the future.
The decision to open the border was a policy choice made by Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. The American public saw glimpses of his future policies in late 2019 and 2020. During a presidential primary campaign debate in 2019, Joe Biden said he would “make sure…we immediately surge to the border all those people that are seeking asylum. They deserve to be heard. That’s who we are. We’re a nation that says if you want to flee and you’re fleeing oppression, you should come.”REF In January 2020, Biden tweeted that he would end the Remain in Mexico program on day one.REF In an August 2020 media interview, Biden said, “There will not be another foot of wall constructed [by] my administration.”REF
Then, once Biden was sworn in as President, he wasted no time unleashing his open border agenda. On the first day of his Administration, Biden began halting effective immigration enforcement and anti-fraud measures. His orders included stopping construction of the border wall system, ending enrollments of aliens in the effective anti–asylum fraud Remain in Mexico program, ordering that no deportations would occur for the first 100 days of his Administration, » Read More
https://www.heritage.org/border-security/report/consequences-failure-how-bidens-policies-fueled-the-border-crisis