Resume construction of the border wall at the nation’s southern border and put in place the technology, infrastructure and personnel needed to secure the border, utilizing funding Congress has already appropriated.
Advocate for resuming construction of the southern border wall and deploying technology, infrastructure, and personnel for border security using already-appropriated funds.
Occurrences
Evidence
Senator John Hoeven criticized President Biden's executive actions that created additional exceptions to U.S. immigration law, stating that the administration should focus on securing the border and enforcing existing laws. Hoeven emphasized the need for real border security to end the illegal immigration crisis.
Hoeven has been working to call attention to the illegal immigration crisis and push back on President Biden’s open border policies. Specifically, the senator is pressing the administration to: Reinstate the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) or Remain in Mexico Policy, which required people seeking asylum at the southern border to wait in Mexico while their case was adjudicated. Strictly Enforce the Safe Third Country Agreements requiring that those coming from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala seek asylum there first, otherwise be returned to await the outcome of their claims. Resume construction of the border wall at the nation’s southern border and put in place the technology, infrastructure and personnel needed to secure the border, utilizing funding Congress has already appropriated.
Senator John Hoeven helped secure Senate passage of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Defense Appropriations Bill, which provides increased support for North Dakota’s servicemembers and their missions. The Defense bill was one of the final six FY2024 Appropriations bills approved by Congress today. The bills, which were previously considered and approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee with broad bipartisan support, complete the FY24 appropriations process, and while defense received a 3% increase, the bills provide savings in non-defense spending. The bills passed earlier this month reduced non-defense spending by $10 billion and today’s bills reduced non-defense spending by more than $6 billion.
Hoeven also met with North Dakota National Guard members in Del Rio, Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas in recent years to highlight their missions in support of Customs and Border Protection operations. The senator has also reviewed border operations in the Rio Grande Valley and Brownsville, Texas, and traveled with a bipartisan congressional delegation to Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia and Guatemala to outline the need to work with these nations to stop illegal immigration and prevent human and drug trafficking.
In his latest public appropriations-related activity, Hoeven worked to accelerate military infrastructure tied to the Sentinel program and highlighted FY2027 requests for Minot-related projects; the release does not show any resumed southern border wall construction or new border-security deployment tied to the claim.
The Senate Appropriations explanatory statement says the FY2026 Homeland Security bill provides resources for immigration enforcement and border security operations and includes border-security assets and infrastructure funding, but it does not document resumption of southern border wall construction with already-appropriated funds.
Assessments
Hoeven publicly advocated and pressed the Biden administration to resume southern border wall construction and deploy border-security technology, infrastructure, and personnel using already-appropriated funds. That satisfies serious effort for a federal senator, but the supplied record does not show the promised outcome was actually delivered: later appropriations activity supported border security generally and Hoeven’s recent official work focused on other infrastructure priorities, with no evidence of resumed southern border wall construction tied to already-appropriated funds. Because the specific promised outcome was not achieved, this is best scored as not delivered with an effort badge.
The evidence demonstrates that Senator Hoeven repeatedly advocated for resuming border wall construction and for deploying additional border security resources, including personnel and technology. He pressed the administration to use previously appropriated funds and publicly opposed executive decisions curtailing border enforcement. However, there is no evidence that any actual resumption of border wall construction or significant deployment of additional resources using appropriated funds was achieved during this term. The inability to deliver was largely due to lack of executive branch cooperation rather than lack of legislative effort; Hoeven made sustained and documented attempts but failed to deliver the specific outcome promised.