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Sean Spicer: Time is running out for Congress to cement Trump’s border security gains
Less than two years before the next congressional session begins
Border crossings and illegal migrant “gotaways” have fallen precipitously since President Trump’s inauguration, down more than 90% from the same month in 2024.
Mr. Trump’s border czar, Thomas Homan, reported last week that in one 24-hour stretch, the U.S. Border Patrol encountered just 229 migrants across the entire southwestern border, down from a high of more than 11,000 daily under President Biden and lower than any other day he remembered in his 40-year career. Journalists accompanying Border Patrol agents in speedboats that traveled 30 miles along the Rio Grande didn’t encounter a single migrant. Border Patrol buses sit empty.
“Call it the Trump Effect,” reads a recent White House press release celebrating the record decline. Although the crackdown at the border is a big win for Mr. Trump and the voters who elected him with a mandate to stop the flow of illegal migration into the country, real change requires more than executive actions. For the Trump Effect to become a lasting policy, Congress must act now to capitalize on Republican momentum and codify stronger immigration enforcement measures into law.
Republicans now have a unified government, controlling the House of Representatives, Senate and presidency. It’s a golden opportunity to legislate on border security while they have the chance. Last week, they took an essential step in the House by passing a budget that includes more than $100 billion in new spending on immigration enforcement and the military. Lasting reforms will require further congressional action. With a five-seat majority in the House — the smallest margin in modern history — and 53 out of 100 seats in the Senate, Republicans have little room for error.
In addition, the president’s party nearly always loses ground in the midterm elections, and the window of opportunity looks smaller. If Republicans lose the House or Senate in 2026, Democrats can block his agenda. They have less than two years until the next congressional session begins. Although I hope and believe Republicans will maintain their majorities, history is not on our side.
Mr. Trump must capitalize on his congressional majority while he can. Indeed, he remembers passing his signature Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 with the support of majorities in the House and Senate, only to be met with gridlock on immigration, health care and infrastructure after losing the House majority in the 2018 midterms. The same risk looms over his border agenda today. If Republicans don’t act swiftly, the opportunity for lasting reform could disappear.
As Americans know, our immigration system is inefficient and outdated. A majority say they favor reducing immigration levels for the first time in decades. What is needed is a comprehensive legislative overhaul that addresses key obstacles with modernizing strategies.
One problem with the current model is the backlog crisis. Nearly 4 million immigration cases are trapped in a stagnant holding pattern, as cases have doubled over the past decade. With cases that drag on for years with no end in sight, families and businesses suffer from prolonged uncertainty and disruption.
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