Op-Ed: Rep. Tracey Mann: President Trump is showing the magic of enforcing our border laws

Two months into his second term, President Donald Trump has done more to secure our nation’s border and protect our national security than President Joe Biden did in four years. President Trump made a promise to the country to stop the political theater, enforce the rule of law, and secure our borders for good. He is doing just that.

Since President Trump was sworn in, illegal border crossings have plummeted. This past February was the lowest level of illegal crossings ever recorded in our nation’s history, down 94 percent from February 2024 and 96 percent from the all-time high under the Biden Administration. Along the Del Rio Sector of the border, there was a 98.8 percent decrease in apprehensions compared to the highest day under President Biden.

For four years, President Biden and radical progressive activists tried to blame President Trump and Congressional Republicans for the crisis at the nation’s border. It turns out the only thing we needed all along was a President who doesn’t run from common sense and isn’t afraid to enforce the law.

Thankfully, President Trump is not afraid.

Just this week, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will resume construction of President Trump’s border wall. Border patrol agents have told us again and again that a physical barrier on our southern border is a key deterrent to slowing the trafficking of humans and illicit drugs by the Mexican drug cartels across our southern border. Yet on day one of his presidency, President Biden stopped construction of the border wall. President Trump is reversing this madness and making our border secure.

The Trump administration also shut down the CBP One app that President Biden’s administration established and exploited to release millions of illegal immigrants into the interior of the country without proper background checks or vetting. Instead, President Trump replaced the app with the CBP Home App, which features a self-deportation feature for migrants who are in the U.S. illegally. This feature helps preserve Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and law enforcement resources to focus on dangerous criminals in the country illegally.

President Biden’s failed leadership continuously put innocent American lives at risk as nearly 400 individuals whose names appeared on the terrorist watchlist attempted to enter the country and gang members from MS-13 and Tren de Aragua invaded the interior of the U.S. Some of these monsters took the lives of innocent Americans like Laken Riley and Jocelyn Nungaray. While President Biden barely expressed empathy for the lives he put at risk, President Trump took action, deporting these violent criminals and gang members from the start of his presidency.

On November 5, 2024, 77 million Americans, including myself, voted to restore commonsense border policies to our nation’s capital. The President is providing that common sense and I am deeply grateful to have his strong leadership back in the White House.

Thank you, President Trump for standing up for our country and securing our border. Promises made, promises kept.

Rep. Tracey Mann represents Kansas’s 1st District in Congress.