Letter to Joseph R. Biden, President of the United States - Sen. Cruz Demands Answers From Biden Administration on Lowering Security Standards and Raiding Veteran Benefits to Fund Open Border Agenda

Letter

Dear President Biden:

I write to you today to express my continued concern about reports that your Administration may soon rescind Customs and Border Security's (CBP) legal authority to expel migrants under Title 42 via the Center for Disease Control's (CDC) March 2020 order. CBP's Title 42 authority to expel migrants is necessary both to protect public health and to adequately manage the challenges the agency continues to face due to exponential increases in border encounters at the Southern border. Furthermore, I have deep concerns that this Administration may attempt to lower security standards and divert resources away from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), specifically medical personnel, to deal with the consequences of this self-inflicted border crisis.

According to reporting late last week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been mulling around potential strategies for dealing with the anticipated influx of migrants when CBP's Title 42 authority is revoked. Reportedly, one such strategy, according to a source from within CBP, includes diverting VA medical personnel and deploying them to the border. The CBP source went on to say "[w]e're going to take medical services away from people…[w]ho went to combat…to give free medical attention to illegal migrants." That is completely unacceptable.

Additionally, as reported by the Washington Free Beacon, DHS is reportedly considering allowing volunteer staffers and outside contractors to access the federal government's internal immigration data entry system, which includes sensitive information such as biometric data. Apparently, DHS has also proposed expanding the volunteer force to employees at other federal agencies, including the VA. Lowering security standards by allowing individuals who have not undergone the applicable background check scheme to access this sensitive law enforcement database demonstrates a dangerous and careless disregard for border security. To date, your Administration has failed to deny any of these troubling reports.

Worse, these disturbing reports occur in the context of the VA's recommendations to the Asset and Infrastructure Review (AIR) Commission to close or downsize dozens of facilities across the nation, including the Bonham VA Medical Center (VAMC) in Fannin County, Texas, which serves rural veterans. Dismantling the Bonham VAMC would force rural veterans to travel over 80 miles to the Dallas VAMC for specialty care, as there are "limited community resources in the surrounding rural counties for specialty care and complex care needs" which the VA's own recommendation admits. The very idea that your Administration's VA would close a vital resource for Texas veterans while contemplating diverting VA medical personnel to be deployed at the border is baffling and deeply troubling.

There has been an outcry from a bipartisan coalition of legislators pleading with you to reverse course on rescinding this authority and to ensure that our border is secure. At a bare minimum, American veterans' medical care needs should not suffer due to this misplaced policy choice.

I call on you to categorically denounce any policy which would result in diverting resources intended for American veterans to migrants at the Southern border. Further, I urge you to secure our Southern border and immediately renew Title 42.

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