WASHINGTON – Since President Biden took office in 2021, there have been at least eight million illegal border crossings into the United States and more than 5 million apprehensions at the southern border.
Along the southern border, Texas and Arizona have constructed temporary barriers made out of shipping containers in order to fill gaps in the unfinished border wall. After the U.S. Department of Justice sued Arizona, claiming the containers along the southern border violated federal law, the state started to remove the containers. However, Texas has maintained its wall of shipping containers.
U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) joined U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) in introducing the Creating Obstructions Necessary to Address Illegal and Nefarious Entry Rapidly (CONTAINER) Act. This legislation would allow border states to take action on specific federal lands to secure an international border of the United States.
“The Biden administration’s refusal to secure our southern border has forced states to combat the crisis on their own. Instead of fixing its policy decisions, the administration sued states trying to stem the flow,” said Cramer. “In the face of an administration actively choosing disorder over its solemn duty to safeguard our territorial integrity, states should have the flexibility to take action when the federal government doesn’t.”
Specifically, the legislation authorizes border states to place temporary, moveable structures on federal land for the purpose of securing the border without first seeking federal approval. The CONTAINER Act would allow states to keep these structures on federal land for up to a year, subject to 90-day extensions.
Additional cosigners include U.S. Senators JD Vance (R-OH), Cindy Hyde Smith (R-MS), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Ted Budd (R-NC), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Mike Braun (R-IN), Tim Scott (R-SC), and Ted Cruz (R-TX).
