Sorensen Visits Southern Border, Calls for Increased Border Security
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Eric Sorensen (IL-17) visited the southern border of the United States on a bipartisan trip to Arizona where he spoke directly with border patrol agents, government officials, and small business owners about the challenges they face in keeping the border secure and managing the flow of immigrants.
“My neighbors back home in Central and Northwestern Illinois expect me to listen and understand the challenges we face as a nation so we can work together to solve them,” said Sorensen. “The bipartisan trip I took to the southern border helped me understand that our law enforcement needs more support in keeping the border secure. We also need to be doing more to fix our broken immigration system so that those who want to follow American law can come to this country legally. If we want to solve this problem, we need to set partisan politics aside and enact bipartisan solutions that will keep our neighbors and our country safe.”
The bipartisan trip included three House Democrats and three House Republicans. The group discussed bipartisan solutions to addressing the problems at the southern border.
Since he began his term in Congress, Sorensen has been a strong advocate for securing our southern border and stopping the flow of fentanyl that is hurting Illinois working families by:
- Proposing legislation that would have added 500 new U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB) officers at legal points of entry, where the majority of illicit drugs enter the country.
- Proposing legislation that would bring federal agencies together in the fight to stop the spread of fentanyl, creating a more unified approach toward dealing with cartels and smugglers.
- Co-sponsoring the DIGNITY Act, the only comprehensive, bipartisan bill that currently exists in the House of Representatives to fix our immigration system and secure the southern border.
- Helping launch House Democrat’s Border Security Task Force, which will work on bipartisan, sensible reforms to secure the southern border.
- Voting to increase overtime pay for CPB agents that patrol and protect the southern border.
- Calling on Speaker Johnson to work with Democrats in a bipartisan way to address the challenges we face at the southern border.
Congressman Eric Sorensen serves on the House Committee on Agriculture and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. Prior to serving in Congress, Sorensen was a local meteorologist in Rockford and the Quad Cities for nearly 20 years. His district includes Illinois’ Quad Cities, Rockford, Peoria, and Bloomington-Normal.
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