Executive Director Mark Krikorian, Senior National Security Fellow Todd Bensman, and Director of Policy Studies Jessica Vaughan with the Center for Immigration Studies said Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives could immediately use their slim-margin majority to help correct the nation’s border crisis by cutting funding for programs and entities that fuel illegal immigration.
One idea the trio discussed during Thursday’s episode of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – other than impeaching and convicting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas – was lawmakers’ ability to cut funding for the United Nations (UN), which has been providing illegal immigrants with cash cards as they make their journey to North America.
“The other power that the House has is control over the purse strings as they say, although I’ve never seen a purse with strings, but the point is control over money and there are two ways to look at it. Just to give you a couple examples, you can stop giving money to some things and you can require that money is spent on other things. In the stop giving money, Todd has written about how the United Nations, with our money, has been giving out cash cards and other assistance to people to help them get to the U.S. border. That needs to stop,” Krikorian explained.
Bensman added that there are “hundreds” of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are “working directly with the State Department, USAID, and the United Nations IOM and UNHCR to field way stations and hospitality stations” in South America, which aid migrants on their journey to the U.S. and Canada.
“I’ve been to three different way stations where I watch them apply for the debit cards, receive the debit cards, and I’ve interviewed them about having the debit cards,” Bensman said.
“The last piece I wrote was about the UN’s 2024 updated budget where they’re calling for $1.6 billion to be spent on 3 million illegal immigrants- including debit cards and cash assistance to 624,000 in transit. Not everybody gets a debit card, but there’s plenty to go around,” Bensman added.
Krikorian noted that illegal immigrants are being given “cash in envelopes” in addition to counseling and assistance with asylum applications, as noted by Vaughan.
In regards to the Republican three-vote majority in the House, Vaughan noted that any proposal in regards to addressing the border crisis must be tied to funding intended for Ukraine for it to pass in this current session.
“It just depends on how badly people want the Ukraine money,” Vaughan said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
