A hearing on the security of the southern border took place Tuesday afternoon as fencing was put up again around the entire U.S. Capitol building.
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee heard from U.S. Customs and Border Protection chief patrol agents Gloria Chavez (Rio Grande Valley Sector) and John Modlin.
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Illegal crossings hit 251,487 in December, the worst month ever in recorded history, declared Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX). The prior worst month was in May of 2022, reaching 241,136 crossings. Before May it was the very previous month of April, which was 235,785 illegal crossings.
"That's the very definition of bad and terrible," said Fallon. "It's safe to say that what's going on in the southern border is tough. It's trying and it's terrible. And there's a glaring difference between this administration and the past."
However, his remarks were far from the mindset of Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL). Calling it a "monument of fear," Frost said that "the wall kind of reminds me of a sad, decaying Soviet statue. Is the bigger failure that migrants are able to breach the wall or find their way around it?"
Rep. Fallon was sure to dispute these remarks while addressing the fence surrounding the Capitol. The barricade comes as U.S. Capitol Police take extra safety measures ahead of the State of the Union address from President Biden on Tuesday night.
"It was just stated that walls don't work. And yet there's one going up right on the Capitol right now against our recommendation. So, hm, that's interesting," said Fallon.
A recent Convention of States Action poll in partnership with the Trafalgar Group found that the majority of voters support using citizen volunteers to triage the southern border. The people want to see security returned to the nation, something even more pressing since last week's Chinese spy balloon flyover.
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