Nevada’s Congressional Representatives Steven Horsford (CD-4) and Susie Lee (CD-3) joined thirteen of their Democratic colleagues in a letter to Joe Biden requesting his administration “immediately take further action” to secure the border between the United States and Mexico.
In the letter first obtained by CBS News, the Democratic legislators urged Biden to “immediately take further action to restore order at the Southern border and fix our broken immigration system.”
“It has become clear that the current situation remains untenable, but with Republicans playing politics on border security, it is time for your administration to act,” the letter said. “We urge you to use all tools at your disposal, including executive action, to better address security at the Southern border, interdict illicit fentanyl and allow for orderly legal immigration.”
The letter not only lays blames on House Republicans for “playing politics on border security,” but continues to push the dead-on-arrival “bipartisan border deal.”
In a statement on X, House Speaker Mike Johnson said, “I’ve seen enough. This bill is even worse than we expected, and won’t come close to ending the border catastrophe the President has created. As the lead Democrat negotiator proclaimed: Under this legislation, “the border never closes.” If this bill reaches the House, it will be dead on arrival.”
Last week, Reps. Horsford and Lee voted with a handful of their Democratic colleagues to formally denounce Biden’s immigration policies. The Republican-led measure passed the house in a 223-191 vote. Rep. Dina Titus was the only member of the Nevada delegation to vote “no.”
Numerous pieces of border legislation introduced by the House Republican majority have failed to garner Horsford’s and Lee’s support.
The letter to the Biden Administration additionally notes that “all of our constituents, no matter our congressional district, have felt the impacts of the current border situation.”
The devastating “impacts of the current border situation” have been felt throughout Nevada.
According to the Southern Nevada Health District, fentanyl deaths have ravaged Horsford’s and Lee’s respective districts.
From January 2018 to July 2022, a provisional estimate of 1412 opioid-related overdose deaths occurred in Clark County. Of the Clark County residents that died from opioid-related deaths, 653 (46 percent) died from fentanyl. Of these fentanyl deaths 65 percent were male; 51 percent White; 17 percent Black; 3 percent Asian; and 24 percent Hispanic/Latino. Younger adults are at the highest risk of fatal overdose involving fentanyl. The three age groups at the highest risk of fentanyl overdose deaths are 20-24, 30-34, and 25-29 years of age.
As the Globe reported, numerous illegal aliens in Southern and Northern Nevada have been arrested for a variety of crimes including identity fraud, mail theft, drug trafficking, reckless homicide and open-murder.
Last month, Elmer Rueda-Linares was arrested in connection with the death of Kurt Englehart, a Senior Advisor to Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto. Rueda-Linares entered the country illegally in March 2021.
Since President Joe Biden assumed office, his administration has released approximately 4.6 million illegal aliens into the interior of the United States which represents approximately 85 percent of those encountered, detained and released.
Yet, in May 2023 Lee told a local Nevada news outlet that “There has definitely been a crackdown by this administration, making sure that anyone who enters illegally is punished for that.”
National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Spokeswoman Delanie Bomar released the following statement, “Another election year, another pathetic political scramble from Steven Horsford and Susie Lee to cover up their disastrous policies. When will they finally be held accountable for their records?”
Jack Pandol, the communications director for the NRCC, responded to the letter by saying in an email to CBS that “extreme Democrats play Lucy with the football every election year – promising to lock down the border after opening the floodgates the year before. It’s a pathetic charade that says more about Democrats’ political freakout over their open borders policies than it does about their willingness to end the crisis.”