House Republicans Advance Bill to Lock In Trump Border Policies
House Republicans are moving a sweeping border security bill toward the House floor. The measure would make several of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies permanent in federal law.
The House Judiciary Committee approved the Permanent Trump Secure Border Act on Tuesday. The vote followed hours of debate and passed along party lines, with Democrats strongly opposing the legislation.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, authored the bill. It would treat visa overstays as a criminal offense and increase penalties for unlawful entry. It would also sharply limit “catch and release” by requiring most migrants who enter unlawfully to remain detained or be returned while their immigration cases move forward.
The bill would further tighten eligibility for asylum and humanitarian parole. Supporters say those changes are needed to prevent the immigration system from being used as a release mechanism for people who do not qualify to stay in the United States.
The legislation also calls for a major expansion of border security operations. It directs the Department of Homeland Security to modernize facilities, improve workforce planning and hire additional personnel. It would also encourage the broader use of drones, radar, biometric screening and DNA collection.
Republicans argue that congressional action is necessary because a future administration could reverse executive policies. They point to the sharp decline in illegal border crossings during Trump’s second term as evidence that tougher enforcement is working.
“We want to make sure that if you ever, God forbid, get another Joe Biden-type president who’s just going to open the border, that makes it much tougher for him to do what he did,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital.
Democrats say the bill does not go far enough on legal immigration and fails to include reforms affecting Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the committee’s ranking member, argued that lawmakers should pursue a broader bipartisan package.
“We’ve been urging the majority to set aside the demonization of immigrants to pass comprehensive, commonsense immigration reform on a bipartisan basis,” Raskin said during the debate.
The committee vote followed a protest by House conservatives, who kept the floor frozen for several weeks in June and July while demanding action on border security. Roy said lawmakers must deliver on the issues they promised voters.
“We need to deliver on codifying border security, deal with the birthright citizenship issue,” Roy told reporters earlier in July.
“These are all issues people that I represent care about intently and that we’ve talked about doing, and we need to deliver,” he said.
The bill could still face challenges on the House floor. Some moderate Republicans want temporary legal protections for agricultural workers. The proposal closely resembles H.R. 2, the border bill House Republicans passed during the Biden administration, but leaves out a nationwide E-Verify mandate that has divided the GOP.
Some Republicans are also pushing for a vote on birthright citizenship. That effort follows the Supreme Court’s rejection of the Trump administration’s attempt to limit the practice.
Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., has introduced the Anchors Away Act. His bill would restrict birthright citizenship to children with at least one parent holding certain legal status and give the federal government authority to deny entry to pregnant foreign nationals.
“I refuse to let these anchor babies colonize our country,” Ogles previously told Fox News Digital.