WASHINGTON – Rep. Chris Jacobs of Orchard Park traveled to the Mexican border late last week – his second visit in the past 18 months.
So why would a congressman who represents suburbs and farmland between Buffalo and Rochester be so interested in a border that's about 1,800 miles away?
To hear Jacobs tell it, it is because what is happening there – a record-setting influx of undocumented immigrants – could pose a national security threat that could even reach New York's 27th Congressional District.
"I think this is a national security issue, and I think, as a New Yorker, that New York has always been a draw" for immigrants, said Jacobs, who first visited the border as a congressional candidate in October 2019. "I think this is something we all need to be concerned about."
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Border Patrol agents told Jacobs they have seen people from 62 countries cross the Mexican border. Most notably, Jacobs said, border agents in California last week apprehended two Yemeni men who are on a terrorism watch list.
A deeper read of Jacobs and Reed's backgrounds makes their votes regarding GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia seem less surprising.
Jacobs said a border patrol agent in Texas said to him: "In my mind it's not a matter of if, but when, a terrorist attack happens by somebody coming over the border right now."
Customs and Border Protection said it encountered 172,000 people trying to cross the southern border in March – up 71% in a month. Many are single adults, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it immediately expelled 103,900 such individuals in March.
Unaccompanied minors are temporarily detained in the U.S., and Biden administration officials have downplayed the threat that they and other undocumented immigrants pose.
“We are committed to balancing the need to maintain border security, care for those in our custody and keep the American people and our workforce safe," said Troy Miller, the acting head of Customs and Border Protection.
But Jacobs said his constituents in his conservative Western New York congressional district are concerned about the influx of undocumented immigrants.
Dozens of corporations and organizations have announced that their political action committees will not give money to lawmakers – such as Jacobs – who voted against certifying the Electoral College results from swing states.
"They're very interested in it," Jacobs said. "They see on the news what's going on. Why is this seeming to be going on right now? What are the causes? I think I'm more equipped now to answer those questions."
Jacobs traveled to San Antonio and then Eagle Pass, Texas, late last week with members of the Republican Study Committee, a group of conservative House members.
And what he saw there convinced him that contrary to what the Biden administration has said, the situation at the border is a crisis – one that President Biden has made worse by relaxing former President Donald Trump's get-tough border policies.
Most notably, Jacobs said, Biden has relaxed enforcement of a federal law that allowed U.S. immigration officials to immediately deport all asylum seekers, no matter their age, citing the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, while adults are immediately deported, juveniles are allowed to temporarily stay in facilities the federal government is constructing to temporarily house them.
"It was basically a series of interconnected tents, but very nice: air conditioned with shower facilities and hot meals," Jacobs said.
Asked to describe the people he saw detained there, Jacobs said they appeared to be juveniles in their mid to upper teens.
