Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 6, 2024
Contact: Sharayah Colter, Chief Communications Officer, The Danbury Institute,
WASHINGTON—The Danbury Institute delivered a letter signed by former federal law enforcement officers and elected officials and addressed to leaders in both the United States Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, Monday, Feb. 5, warning of increasing national security risks in America because of the nation’s border crisis.
Signatories of the letter include men and women who served with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Marshals Service, among other agencies. Several carried the designation of being members of the Senior Executive Service.
Their warning to Congress can essentially be summarized in the observation that the crime and terroristic threats they gave their careers to mitigating and separating from the American public, now cross the southern border unencumbered. The result, they say, has been a tragic and wholly avoidable surge in drug trafficking, sex trafficking, kidnapping, rape, and murder. This trend will only continue if the border is not secured, they say:
“The life and liberty of all Americans is in clear and present danger. Failure to secure our borders and enforce laws governing the lawful and orderly entrance into the United States has resulted in millions of unvetted persons entering our country illegally—a situation reasonably categorized as an invasion. Today, the United States faces elevated risk on multiple fronts because of the influx of drugs and increase of violent crime stemming from an open border.
“As men and women who have spent our careers and lives fulfilling an oath to ‘preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States,’ and in that, to promote the security of her people, we raise an alarm today to say that threats to our national security are currently walking into the nation unchecked and unhindered on a daily basis. For those of us whose service to the nation consisted primarily of overseeing the incarceration of some of America’s worst criminal offenders, we collectively alert you today that what once was mostly contained behind bars in this nation now roams through America’s streets.”
The delivery of this letter to Capitol Hill, Monday, follows a visit representatives of The Danbury Institute made to the southern border, Friday, Feb. 2. While in Eagle Pass, Texas, they met with local leaders and military personnel from Joint Task Force Lone Star to get a firsthand look at the current situation on the U.S.-Mexico border. The visit underscored the simple truth that the border is indeed open, and that the open border is harming American citizens and cities, harming border towns, and harming the people—including children—trying to cross the border illegally. The entrance of unknown “gotaways” into the nation, totaling 1.7 million since 2021, and the introduction of enough Fentanyl to kill 6 billion people in one year alone both demonstrate the serious threats brought to the United States through the lack of security at the border and the incentives that lure people to break the law by entering the country illegally.
While some Christian leaders have twisted or at best misunderstood Scripture’s command to love one’s neighbor as being a command to open all borders, the truth is that open borders harm “neighbors,” foreign and domestic.
“Christians are correctly a compassionate people and a ‘people of the Book,’ explains Scott Colter, Chief Executive Officer of The Danbury Institute. “They take seriously the command to love their neighbors. However, those with open-border, leftist agendas have hoodwinked well- meaning Christians into believing that wide-open, come-all borders is ‘loving’ their neighbors.”
The reality, he says, is that the current situation at the border is anything but loving.
“Multiple cities across the country are being overrun and cannot keep up with the massive influx of undocumented immigrants,” Colter said. “This is not loving to those neighbors. Allowing enough Fentanyl to cross the border to kill at least 6 billion people—almost the entire population of the globe—is not loving to our children or grandchildren, nor to our neighbors. Burdening border towns with an influx of people their infrastructure is not prepared to handle and suffocating their local economies, morale, and safety are not loving. Enticing children and women to cross the most harrowing conditions at the hands of evil “coyotes,” who rape, pilfer, and exploit them into trafficking rings is perhaps the most unloving of all. In this situation, everyone loses, and the current Democratic administration is solely to blame. Christians indeed must love their neighbors. Loving them looks like ending the open border that has led to this situation and enforcing the laws already on the books. We are a nation of migrants, but we are also a nation with laws that must be followed to ensure safe, effective, and legal avenues remain open to immigrants and those truly seeking legitimate protection in our nation.”
Collin Hain, Chief Operations Officer for The Danbury Institute agreed and highlighted the current administration’s lack of an effective response to secure the border.
“The president is seemingly refusing to control the illegal invasion at our southern border,” Hain said. “Legislators continue to argue about the path forward, while American, law enforcement, and even migrants’ lives are at risk. The solution is simple. The most loving thing we as a nation can do is enforce our laws and immediately gain control of our border.”
Sharayah Colter, Chief Communications Officer for The Danbury Institute, met with leaders on Capitol Hill Monday who pointed to the fact that the U.S. House of Representatives has already passed legislation in H.R. 2 that could secure the border, and that many members of Congress vehemently oppose language in the Senate bill that would effectively legalize illegal immigration.
“If the goal is genuinely to secure the border, the Senate could embrace H.R. 2, or the president could simply take action today by returning to policies he voided on day one of his presidency — policies that were working and should never have been ended in the first place,” Colter said. “The current push to accept legislation revealed this week in the Senate would only further incentivize illegal entry and would actually legalize illegal entry into the country. What an unhelpful message to broadcast to the world and to our adversaries. Anyone seeking a just, compassionate response to the border crisis should know that the Senate’s border deal is not the answer.”
To read the full text of the letter delivered to Congress, visit DanburyInstitute.org/legislative-letters.
Comments