Veto Message to the House of Representatives for H.J. Res. 46
I am returning herewith without my
approval H.J. Res. 46, a joint resolution that would terminate the
national emergency I declared regarding the crisis on our southern border
in Proclamation 9844 on February 15, 2019, pursuant to the National Emergencies
Act.
As demonstrated by recent statistics
published by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and explained in
testimony given by the Secretary of Homeland Security on March 6, 2019, before
the House Committee on Homeland Security, our porous southern border continues
to be a magnet for lawless migration and criminals and has created a border
security and humanitarian crisis that endangers every American. Last
month alone, CBP apprehended more than 76,000 aliens improperly attempting to
enter the United States along the southern border — the largest monthly total
in the last 5 years. In fiscal year 2018, CBP seized more than
820,000 pounds of drugs at our southern border, including 24,000 pounds of
cocaine, 64,000 pounds of methamphetamine, 5,000 pounds of heroin, and 1,800
pounds of fentanyl. In fiscal years 2017 and 2018, immigration officers
nationwide made 266,000 arrests of aliens previously charged with or convicted
of crimes. These crimes included approximately 100,000 assaults, 30,000
sex crimes, and 4,000 killings. In other words, aliens coming across our
border have injured or killed thousands of people, while drugs flowing through
the border have killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.
The current situation requires our
frontline border enforcement personnel to vastly increase their humanitarian
efforts. Along their dangerous trek to the United States,
1 in 3 migrant women experiences sexual abuse, and 7 in 10 migrants
are victims of violence. Fifty migrants per day are referred for
emergency medical care, and CBP rescues 4,300 people per year who are
in danger and distress. The efforts to address this humanitarian
catastrophe draw resources away from enforcing our Nation’s immigration laws
and protecting the border, and place border security personnel at increased
risk.
As troubling as these statistics are, they
reveal only part of the reality. The situation at the southern border is
rapidly deteriorating because of who is arriving and how they are
arriving. For many years, the majority of individuals who arrived
illegally were single adults from Mexico. Under our existing laws, we
could detain and quickly remove most of these aliens. More recently,
however, illegal migrants have organized into caravans that include large
numbers of families and unaccompanied children from Central American
countries. Last year, for example, a record number of families crossed
the border illegally. If the current trend holds, the number of families
crossing in fiscal year 2019 will greatly surpass last year’s record
total. Criminal organizations are taking advantage of these large flows
of families and unaccompanied minors to conduct dangerous illegal activity,
including human trafficking, drug smuggling, and brutal killings.
Under current laws, court decisions, and
resource constraints, the Government cannot detain families or undocumented
alien children from Central American countries in significant numbers or
quickly deport them. Instead, the Government is forced to release many of
them into the interior of the United States, pending lengthy judicial
proceedings. Although many fail ever to establish any legal right to
remain in this country, they stay nonetheless.
This situation on our border cannot be
described as anything other than a national emergency, and our Armed Forces are
needed to help confront it.
My highest obligation as President is to
protect the Nation and its people. Every day, the crisis on our
border is deepening, and with new surges of migrants expected in the
coming months, we are straining our border enforcement personnel and resources
to the breaking point.
H.J. Res. 46 ignores these
realities. It is a dangerous resolution that would undermine United
States sovereignty and threaten the lives and safety of countless
Americans. It is, therefore, my duty to return it to the House of
Representatives without my approval.
DONALD J. TRUMP
THE WHITE HOUSE,
March 15, 2019.
March 15, 2019.
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