Sam Graves-The State of Our Union

Dear Friend,

The State of the Union is supposed to be an opportunity for the President to update the Nation on his policies to address the issues we face. It usually doesn’t involve picking fights during the speech or going after your opponent in the upcoming election. Unfortunately, last night, it did.

Instead of a traditional State of the Union address, President Biden decided to deliver an angry, divisive campaign speech. I was disappointed to see the President miss the mark on so many of the issues that are affecting working families in North Missouri, like out-of-control inflation, an energy crisis, and rising crime, just to name a few. It was unbelievable that the President decided to talk about the size of candy bars and bags of chips before addressing the most pressing issue in our country today, the crisis at our southern border. That should be our number one priority.

While President Biden finally acknowledged there is a problem at the border, he’s still wasting billions cancelling contracts to stop border wall construction and bringing illegal immigrants into the U.S. on secret flights.

Meanwhile, in the opening weeks of the new Congress, the House passed the Secure the Border Act. It’s common-sense legislation that would fund the wall, end catch and release, hire more border patrol agents, and strengthen laws to prevent human trafficking. It does much of what we were doing when the border was actually being secured.

Not only that, but just hours before the State of the Union, we passed the Laken Riley Act, which I was proud to co-sponsor. This legislation makes it crystal clear that an illegal immigrant who commits a theft offense, as Laken Riley’s alleged killer did, will be a priority for arrest and must be detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) until the illegal immigrant is removed from the country. This bill also ensures the Biden Administration can be held accountable for its open-border policies by providing states the standing to sue Executive Branch officials for their refusal to enforce the immigration laws we already have on the books.

Make no mistake, President Biden’s open-border policies have turned every community into a border community and destroyed countless American families. Border security is national security. It’s time to cut the nonsense and empty promises and get the job done.

Sincerely,

Sam Graves