Good afternoon, and welcome to our Weekend Update.

The Biden Administration has created a disaster at our southern border by failing to enforce immigration laws, crushed the natural gas industry through its continued assault on American energy, and stifled the U.S. economy through excessive spending. I joined "Mornings with Maria" on Fox Business to dive into all of these pressing topics. Click here or below to watch.

It seems every decision coming from this White House from a national security standpoint and an economic standpoint makes the United States weaker and more vulnerable, both at home and abroad. I addressed Biden's failures on the floor of the United States House. Click here or below to watch.

Under President Trump, the border was secure. During his tenure, he implemented policies that fortified the border, disincentivized illegal immigration, and kept America safe. And while these same laws existed when Joe Biden took office, the current Administration swiftly dismantled the Trump White House’s successful policies.  Most notably, Biden quickly eliminated the successful Remain in Mexico program, creating an absolute disaster at the border. At the direction of President Biden, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has been derelict in his duty, and his reckless failure to execute the immigration laws on the books is an impeachable offense. His actions have jeopardized the national security of the United States, and he deserves to be removed from office. I joined the "American Agenda" on Newsmax to discuss Biden's failure at the border. Click here or below to watch.

IN NEWS YOU WON’T HEAR IN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA: Biden border crisis passes 9 million illegal crossings.

Biden and his administration have all the authority he needs to reverse the executive actions he implemented to allow our border to be flooded with illegal immigrants. He has the ability to enforce existing laws. He has all the power to end the border crisis right now, but BIDEN REFUSES!

BIDEN’S BORDER CRISIS RAGES ON

• Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data shows 176,205 illegal immigrants were encountered attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border in January, the highest January ever recorded.
  • For 35 straight months, monthly encounters have been higher than even the highest month seen under the previous administration.
    
    
  • Biden has yet to reverse the policies that created this crisis in the first place.
    
    
• With roughly 5,600 daily encounters, this dwarfs the definition of a "crisis" set by Obama's DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson when he said in 2019 that "more than 1,000" encounters a day "overwhelms the system."
  
  
• January’s 175,000-plus encounters is a 237 percent increase from the average number of January apprehensions from 2017-2020.
  • 8,523 unaccompanied children were encountered.
    
    
  • 83,761 illegal immigrants were encountered from countries outside the Northern Triangle and Mexico, showing that Biden's crisis is global.
    
    
  • At least 58 people on the terror watchlist have been encountered trying to enter the U.S. between ports of entry this fiscal year.
    • Earlier this month, Americans learned that a terrorist was allowed to roam the U.S. for nearly a year before finally being arrested by ICE.
      
      
• More than 9 million illegal immigrants have crossed the border since Biden took office.
  • This includes the more than 7.2 million illegal immigrants that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has encountered and the 1.8 million know gotaways that have escaped past Border Patrol into the U.S.
    
    
  • Border officials say the official number of gotaways vastly undercounts the illegal immigrants who make it into the U.S.
    
    
• Biden has installed a de facto amnesty program in which over 75,000 illegal immigrants have had their cases dismissed in court due to his administration's failure to file the proper paperwork.
  
  
• An average of 5,000 illegal immigrants are being released into the U.S. every day.
  
  
  • In FY 2023 alone, more than 900,000 illegal immigrants were released into the interior of the U.S. to await immigration court dates years from now.
    
    
  • Experts say the likelihood U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will remove them is “virtually nonexistent” and that they “are here indefinitely, if not forever.”
    
    
• Biden has unilaterally paroled over half a million illegal immigrants using a 1950s law in an “unprecedented” way.
  
  
• Homeland Security Investigations estimates that Mexican cartels are now making $13 billion a year smuggling illegal immigrants into the U.S., 26 times what they made in 2018.

DRUGS ARE POURING OVER THE BORDER INTO OUR COMMUNITIES

• Illicit drugs are flowing into the country at an alarming rate, with only 5 to 10 percent being intercepted as border officials struggle to contain the smuggling.
  • 1,778 pounds of deadly fentanyl and 4,983 pounds of methamphetamine were seized at the southern border in January alone, with much more getting through.
  • Joshua Sharfstein of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: "If they're seizing a lot, it's because a lot is coming in."
  • The amount of fentanyl seized in January is the equivalent of roughly 403 million lethal doses.
    • Since Biden took office, roughly 27 tons of fentanyl have crossed the southern border, enough to kill roughly 12.3 billion people.
      
      
• Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans age 18 to 45, with the number killed by the drug up 94 percent since 2019.
  • Of the 110,000 fatal drug overdoses in 2022, two-thirds involved fentanyl; on average, one person in the U.S. now dies from a fentanyl overdose every seven minutes.
    
    
  • According to Biden's own DEA Administrator Anne Milgram, cartels are "killing Americans with fentanyl at catastrophic and record rates like we've never seen before."

Securing our southern border is not difficult. We have done it before, and we will do it again. Unfortunately, it is clear that the Biden administration has no interest or desire to do so. The only way to secure our border, stop the invasion of illegal immigrants who we know nothing about, and the flood of deadly drugs like fentanyl is to re-elect President Donald Trump. President Trump secured the border once, and he will do it again!

This week, I attended an event for the Trump campaign event and a roundtable with supporters. I was joined by several of my House colleagues, John James, Burgess Owens, Kevin Hearn, and Elise Stefanik. 

It was a pleasure to welcome and meet with Miloslav Stasek, the Czech Ambassador to the United States. During our meeting, we discussed various topics concerning economic development for both the United States and the Czech Republic.

Unsurprisingly, the Biden Administration continues to use the heavy hand of government and pays no attention to small businesses. Watch below as I question the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network about their poorly implemented rule that will only burden America’s businesses while failing to identify the shell companies it was designed to catch. Click here or below to watch.

The Biden Administration is responsible for over $450 billion in new regulations, hindering the success of Main Street America.

The EPA’s Clean Power Rule 2.0 and PM 2.5 Rule will only further burden our nation’s job creators. The Biden Administration’s own Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy said the EPA “has significantly underestimated the cost that its proposed rules would impose on small entities.” This week, in the House Committee on Small Business, we heard from small businesses and those who support them about how detrimental these EPA regulations will be. Click here or below to watch my remarks.

Earlier this week, I was happy to meet with leaders from several YMCA branches across Pennsylvania. The YMCA plays an important role in communities throughout the country, including in Pennsylvania’s Ninth District. We discussed how Congress can support the organization’s mission to empower youth to become engaged citizens, critical thinkers, and ethical leaders.

This past week, we filed our campaign petitions with the Pennsylvania Department of State to get my name officially on the ballot as I seek re-election for the great people of the 9th Congressional District. We filed nearly 2.5 times the required number of petition signatures and have strong support throughout the 9th District. I am humbled and thankful for the outpouring of support. I want to again thank the many great volunteers across the district who helped circulate my petitions.

Now it is time to ensure we get out the vote to ensure Republican victories in November. You can make your voice HEARD in the Primary and General Elections by clicking here. Be sure to Bank Your Vote today!

We look forward to catching up with you next week. God Bless, and see you soon,

Dan Meuser