Senate Passes Ricketts, Fischer-Backed Bill to Make Catch-and-Release Data Public

September 18, 2024

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Deb Fischer (R-NE), and John Cornyn (R-TX) released the following statements after their Southern Border Transparency Act passed the Senate unanimously last night. The bill would require the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide accurate reports on migrant encounters and releases into the United States along with their country origin.

“The American people deserve to know the truth about the border crisis,” said Ricketts. “The Biden-Harris administration has refused to be transparent about their flagrant abuse of the parole program. This bill will hold them accountable for the millions of illegal aliens they’ve released into the country.”

“The Biden-Harris administration has tried to hide their immigration failures by abusing immigration programs and outright lying,” said Fischer. “As bad as the border situation is, we still don’t have a full accounting of how many migrants this administration has imported into our country. This bill will force them to tell the truth.”

“The Biden-Harris administration has gone to great lengths to hide the ball when it comes to levels of illegal immigration, but the American people deserve to know exactly how many migrants are being released into the country and exactly on what terms,” said Cornyn. “This is the most basic of transparency measures – just the facts, that’s all we’re looking for.”

This legislation is also cosponsored by Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Senators Bill Hagerty (R-TN), J.D. Vance (R-OH), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), James Lankford (R-OK), Ted Budd (R-NC), Todd Young (R-IN), Steve Daines (R-MT), Mike Lee (R-UT), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Roger Marshall (R-KS), John Hoeven (R-ND), John Kennedy (R-LA), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Katie Britt (R-AL), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), and Dan Sullivan (R-AK).

BACKGROUND:

The Biden-Harris administration has implemented policies to manage the influx of migrants at the border, including funneling them into “parole” or unlawful release programs. These programs include the Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan parole program, an expanded American Minors program that now includes adults, and the widespread use of parole at Ports of Entry (POEs). These migrants can get work authorization, but there is limited information on whether they can stay or leave the United States.

The Southern Border Transparency Act would require DHS to fully report on how it is handling migrants encountered at the border. This would include migrant parole numbers, migrant apprehensions, parole petitions, and release information.

Last year, the Biden-Harris administration created programs allowing thousands of migrants to enter the United States annually. One allows migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to legally remain the U.S. for two years and offers work authorizations to up to 360,000 people a year.