Lafayette Reporter

The Senate unanimously passed the Southern Border Transparency Act, which Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, helped introduce.

The bill, led by Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), and Susan Collins (R-Maine), would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to issue reports detailing how it is handling illegal aliens seeking entry along the southern border.

“Vice President Harris was tasked with addressing immigration, and under her and Pres. Biden’s watch, millions of illegal immigrants have been released into our country by DHS. Louisianians and all Americans deserve total transparency about who is in their communities. For that reason, the House should bring this bill to the president’s desk quickly,” said Kennedy.

The Biden-Harris administration uses tools such as parole to drive down apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border and avoid removing foreign nationals who enter the country illegally.

“The Biden-Harris administration has gone to great lengths to hide the ball when it comes to levels of illegal immigration, but the American people deserve to know exactly how many migrants are being released into the country and exactly on what terms. This is the most basic of transparency measures—just the facts, that’s all we’re looking for,” said Cornyn.

The bill would require DHS to report on:

- Number of migrants paroled at each port of entry (POE), broken down by nationality and demographics.

- Number of migrants paroled in each Border Patrol sector, broken down by nationality and demographics.

- Number of migrants apprehended at each POE.

- Number of migrants apprehended in each Border Patrol sector.

- Number of petitions for parole received and granted by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and the total number of aliens paroled into the U.S., broken down by nationality and demographics.

Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Roger Marshall(R-Kan.) , John Hoeven(R-N.D.) , Josh Hawley(R-Mo.) , Katie Britt(R-Ala.) , Marsha Blackburn(R-Tenn.) , Bill Cassidy(R-La.) also cosponsored the legislation.

Bill text of the Southern Border Transparency Act is available here.