Press Release: Attorney General Labrador Joins Coalition Opposing Biden-Senate Border Bill

The following press release was sent out by the Office of Attorney General Raúl Labrador on February 8, 2024. Press releases do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of those at the Idaho Dispatch.

(BOISE) – Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador has joined a coalition of 16 attorneys general on a Texas-led letter to the leadership of the United States Senate strongly objecting to measures in the “border bill” proposed in that chamber after negotiation with the White House.

“The President has made it overwhelmingly clear that our borders are open, that illegal entrants will be rewarded, and that those who enter and remain in the United States illegally will face no consequences,” said Attorney General Labrador. “It is incumbent on Congress to bring this rogue executive branch under control. I stand with the State of Texas and call on the federal government to follow existing law or to simply get out of Texas’s way as it strives to keep its own population safe.”

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The letter highlights the bill’s failure to solve problems contributing to high volumes of border encounters, explaining:

“We implore our lawmakers to return to the basics: eliminate incentives for aliens to come to the country, eliminate policies, definitions, and loopholes that allow them to illegitimately enter and stay, and credibly fortify national deportation efforts.”

The letter disavows the use of border security funding as a bargaining chip to secure foreign aid and opposes a measure in the bill that would give the District Court for the District of Columbia the sole jurisdiction to hear legal and constitutional challenges to the provisions of the proposal, which would drastically stack the deck against any legal challenges brought by the States against the federal government.

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The letter additionally calls on Congress to authorize the States to enforce existing federal immigration laws, explaining:

“This would put to rest any even potential pre-emption arguments under the Supreme Court’s Arizona v. United States decision by legislatively overriding the issue. The Biden Administration has repeatedly—and wrongly—claimed that Texas and the other States have no legal authority to enforce federal immigration law and continues to rely on that SCOTUS decision to attack Texas’s lawful border security actions,” noting that this is “a meaningful change that would cost nothing.”

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