Representative Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican and staunch supporter of Donald Trump, isn't satisfied with the former president's immigration policies, telling conservative media personality Steve Bannon that she's "going to inject President Trump's policies with steroids."
Bannon, who served as White House chief strategist under the Trump administration, had Boebert on his podcast WarRoom on Friday where the congresswoman laid out her vision for tackling the surge in illegal migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.
In the 2023 fiscal year, which ended in September, U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) had 3.2 million encounters, according to USBP data. Encounter data includes USBP Title 8 Apprehensions, Office of Field Operations (OFO) Title 8 Inadmissibles, and Title 42 Expulsions.
There have been a total of 1,231,213 U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) enforcement actions, which includes OFO encounters and USBP encounters, in the 2024 fiscal year, which started on October 1, 2023.
Bannon told Boebert: "You've come up with a policy solution to this and the policy solution is pretty up in your grill."
"That's right. So, we're going to inject President Trump's policies with steroids and put them all into one," Boebert said. "My bill is called Build the Wall [and] Deport Them All. That's exactly what we need to do. Buses brought these illegals into our country and buses can bring them out."
"We need Remain in Mexico back in place. We need catch and release. We need to designate fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction because that's what it is. And we need to go after the cartel who have operational control of our southern border."
Newsweek reached out to Boebert's office via email for comment.
Bannon told Newsweek via text message on Friday: "WarRoom supports the bill 100 percent but doesn't think it goes far enough—we want immediate national e-verify with Criminal and Civil penalties against companies and owners; also we don't think this addresses restrictions on legal immigration needed immediately to protect American workers. But we recommend it's immediate passage."
E-Verify is a system that compares information from an employee's Form I-9 to government records. A Form I-9 is used to verify the identity and employment authorization of people hired to work in the U.S.
Boebert's bill does not advocate for catch and release, a term used to describe the practice of releasing migrants into the United States while they await immigration proceedings, but rather attempts to end the practice.
Remain in Mexico was a Trump-era immigration policy, in which asylum seekers were forced to wait in Mexico until their cases were processed in the United States. President Joe Biden ended the policy during his first year in office in June 2021.
There has also been a growing concern over the increase of illicit opioids, including fentanyl coming in through our borders. There has been 7,100 pounds of fentanyl seized by CBP in the 2024 fiscal year. The CBP reported that 27,000 pounds of fentanyl was seized during the 2023 fiscal year.
In February there was an effort in the Senate to advance an $118 billion bipartisan border deal and foreign aid package, but it failed in a 50-49 vote. Prior to the failed vote, Biden supported the deal, and he reiterated his support for it during his State of the Union address on Thursday night.
"In November, my team began serious negotiations with a bipartisan group of Senators. The result was a bipartisan bill with the toughest set of border security reforms we've ever seen in this country," Biden said during his speech.
"That bipartisan deal would hire 1,500 more border security agents and officers. 100 more immigration judges to help tackle a backload of 2 million cases. 4,300 more asylum officers and new policies so they can resolve cases in 6 months instead of 6 years. 100 more high-tech drug detection machines to significantly increase the ability to screen and stop vehicles from smuggling fentanyl into America."
The president said the bill would be "a winner for America," adding, "My Republican friends you owe it to the American people to get this bill done."
Update 03/08/24 5:24 p.m. ET: This article was updated to reflect that Newsweek reached out to Boebert.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Rachel Dobkin is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. Her focus is reporting on politics. Rachel joined Newsweek in ... Read more
