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Conservative Leaders Form Border Security Coalition



Washington, D.C. – The leading public policy center in the state most affected by this year’s crisis on the southern border announced today the formation of a Border Security Coalition, in partnership with sister state and national organizations from throughout the nation.

“The crisis we have seen this year along the U.S. southern border with Mexico has brought into stark relief the need for border security to be priority number one,” said John Hostettler, Vice President of States Trust, the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) center for federalism based in the nation’s capital.

“Given the acute level of dysfunction in Washington, it is also evident that achieving an acceptable level of border security is not going to happen unless key stakeholders like the Texas Public Policy Foundation, in partnership with sister state and national organizations across the country, put necessary focus and attention to this issue,” Hostettler added.

The Border Security Coalition is initially comprised of thirteen top national conservative leaders representing organizations with tens of millions of supporters nationwide. These leaders and organizations include the Heritage Foundation, FreedomWorks, For America, Citizens for Self-Governance, the Remembrance Project, former Ambassador Ken Blackwell and former Senator Jim DeMint, among others. (See the full list here.)

“What we all agree on is the present level of security along the U.S. southern border is unacceptable, and before Congress takes up any other immigration measure it needs to be improved substantially,” said Dr. James Jay Carafano of the Heritage Foundation.

“In addition to the assault on our national sovereignty, the human trafficking that is part and parcel of this lawlessness is a crime against humanity to which we cannot be complicit,” said Adam Brandon, President of FreedomWorks.

“I congratulate the Texas Public Policy Foundation for spearheading this important initiative,” said Jim DeMint, Chairman of the Conservative Partnership Institute. “We should all be able to rally around the common-sense principles of the Border Security Coalition, as the basis for the action necessary to solve this crisis,” DeMint indicated.

Towards that end and in order to achieve necessary improvements to border security, the Coalition is including advocacy of asylum reform as part of its agenda, since in recent years massive abuse of the U.S. asylum system is what has driven much of the crisis along the border.

As an additional part of the effort, Hostettler said, the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Right on Immigration initiative is also placing the federal government’s statistics for measuring border security under the spotlight. TPPF is expected to release a research paper assessing federal border security statistics early next week, he said.

On October 15, 2019 Border Security Coalition members are scheduled to convene at the Heritage Foundation for their inaugural meeting to discuss their shared objectives. The meeting will be followed by a joint, public TPPF-Heritage panel titled “Securing the Border and Restoring Law and Order” featuring an examination of the nation’s current border security metrics as well as what governments at the subnational level can do to support the rule of law.

For more information, please contact Sarah Silberstein at ssilbertein@texaspolicy.com or 512-472-2700.

Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit free-market research institute based in Austin that aims to foster human flourishing by protecting and promoting liberty, opportunity, and personal responsibility.