I am a descendant of immigrants - as are most Utahns. America still welcomes and honors hard working and law abiding immigrants.

But if America is built on the rule of law - then the American Dream cannot begin by breaking the law. And crossing the border illegally is against the law.

Last year, 3.3 million immigrants attempted to cross our southern border illegally. That is a mind blowing number. Just to put that in perspective, that is more people than live in the entire state of Utah. It is also ten times higher than the number of illegal crossings we saw just five years ago.

In the last two months, we have seen nearly 10,000 illegal border crossing attempts every single day. That breaks every historical record.

But the numbers only tell part of the story. Who is crossing our borders has also changed dramatically.

Over the last five years our southern border has become the back door for the entire world. Today, Mexicans actually represent a minority of illegal border crossings. Instead, we are seeing a massive influx of mostly single young men traveling from Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, Ecuador, Brazil and Nicaragua. That’s never happened before.

Last year alone, border agents apprehended 159 terrorists on our own terror watch list at our southern border. They arrested 35,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records. They also seized 27,000 pounds of fentanyl - which represents only a fraction of the drugs successfully trafficked across our border. Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18-45.

What is happening at our Southern Border right now is new - and I believe it is extremely dangerous.

Like all complex issues there are many underlying factors - including domestic problems in countries across Central and South America. When countries fail - people flee.

But almost all experts agree that President Biden’s policies are contributing to the dramatic increase in numbers.

President Biden rolled back Trump era use of Title 42 restrictions - which allowed us to deport over 90% of illegal immigrants upon arrival. Today less than one third of illegal immigrants are deported. And most are released by US Border Patrol into American cities to await processing - with no real risk of deportation.

The message from Joe Biden to immigrants all over the world is simple: come to America’s southern border. Come now. Put your life at risk. Because under current policies - the border is open and the odds of deportation are low.

That’s a disastrous message.

First, I’ll lead the effort to reinstate the Trump policy of turning back migrants at our border. I’ll also push to reinstate the wait-in-Mexico policy for asylum seekers - instead of releasing them into American cities. Both of those changes will disincentivize migrants from starting the journey.

Second, I will lead an effort to secure a common sense, comprehensive border security package that can pass both houses. Including border walls, high tech cameras, motion detectors and more border agents to identify persistent weak points and permanently seal them off.

Third, I will lead a bipartisan effort to overhaul our broken LEGAL immigration system to ensure that the front door is open to the world's best and brightest - and that the backdoor is permanently closed.

We can fix our border. But not with the same politicians who got us into this mess.