PHOENIX—Rep. Greg Stanton issued the following statement after the Department of Homeland Security announced it would resume operations at the Lukeville Port of Entry beginning at 6:00 AM on Thursday, January 4:
“During one of the busiest months for cross-border commerce and tourism, our understaffed and under-resourced Border Patrol was forced to close a vital port of entry. Border communities can’t keep paying the price for the federal government’s failures. Congress must come together to pass emergency supplemental funds to hire more officers and surge resources to secure our border.”
After the POE closed in December, Stanton and Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani called on DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to provide a timeline for reopening Lukeville.
As the New Democrat Coalition’s Immigration and Border Security Task Force Chair, Stanton has led the call for a vote on the Administration’s request for $13.6 billion in emergency supplemental border security funding. The supplemental appropriations would, in part, go to hire an additional 1,300 Border Patrol agents to maintain border security and 1,600 Asylum Officers and 375 immigration judge teams to hear migrant claims.