Biden admits US border isn't secure. But president has done little to solve migration problem.

In the 1992 movie “A Few Good Men,” a tense courtroom exchange between Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson produced one of the most famous lines in Hollywood history. Cruise’s character, who is interrogating Nicholson’s character, yells, “I want the truth!” Nicholson shouts back, “You can’t handle the truth!” The scene transcends pop culture.

More than 30 years later, Nicholson’s quote applies to the border crisis our nation faces. According to a recent NBC News poll, nearly a quarter of Americans still oppose a large-scale border security package, despite the obvious need to do so.

Yet, if they knew that nearly 8 million illegal border encounters occurred during President Joe Biden’s first three years in office, and that an additional 1.7 million migrants – known as “gotaways” – have evaded U.S. Border Patrol, they would realize the crisis isn’t merely partisan rhetoric.

New York cuts services for residents to pay for migrant housing

If they knew that California now provides taxpayer-funded health care to people who immigrated illegally, and that New York City has cut library and police funding to cover costs for migrant housing, they would realize how reckless this has become.

These statistics are just some of the facts – shall we say, the truth – about the results of our ongoing border crisis. But it’s not just about statistics. It’s increasingly about the real impact on communities where migrants are going once they are in the United States.

The border is a mess. Does Biden have the guts to stand up to progressives and get a deal?

It’s about the daily effects that our broken immigration and asylum systems are having on the entire country. The American taxpayers in cities and states hundreds or thousands of miles away from the border now bear the burden of the Biden administration’s inept leadership on this issue.

Those who condone the Biden administration’s position on border security are not looking at the entire picture. The lack of outrage over the status of our southern and northern borders shows a clear misunderstanding of – or perhaps apathy toward – the problem.

Even President Joe Biden now admits that the southern border is not secure.

Decisions like those in New York and California, while appealing to progressives, ultimately jeopardize the American immigration and asylum systems of both today and tomorrow. These decisions impact all of us.

US border with Canada is overlooked concern

Last year, I created the Northern Border Security Caucus with nearly 30 House Republicans who also are committed to strengthening border security. Issues at our northern border are unique from those at the southern border, although the concerns are similar. Instead of crossing a river from Mexico into Texas, you can walk into the United States from parts of Canada without knowing it.

I’ve met with officials who tell me the north has become more vulnerable because Border Patrol agents have been transferred to handle the migration surge in the south. The north is largely unsecured and overexposed.

The result: Northern border encounters increased seven times in FY23 compared with FY21, when President Biden took office and began rolling back Trump-era border regulations. And of the 564 encounters with people on the terror watchlist, 484 were at the northern border.

To begin solving the border crisis, one of the first measures House Republicans passed last year was House Resolution 2, appropriately named the “Secure The Border Act.” Among its provisions, HR 2 would use physical barriers and technology to curb illegal immigration, increase the number of Border Patrol agents and streamline the asylum process. The bill remains in the Senate for consideration.

What immigration strategy? Biden's just shoring up his biggest liability for reelection.

But lately, President Biden and the White House have communicated some revisionist history, suddenly blaming Congress (particularly Republicans) for not providing him with the funds and tools necessary to secure the border. The president’s blame game sounds like an indirect ask for help securing the border and solving an issue that is plaguing him in the polls.

Here is another truth: Republicans have been publicly ready to work on border security for years. Sure, there may be disagreements about exactly how to solve the problem. But we continue to acknowledge the need for comprehensive border security in the short term, along with immigration reform and asylum reform in the long term.

We need Democrats to join our efforts.

Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store.

Democrats are afraid of returning to Trump-era policies that actually worked all because they don’t like the man himself. But former President Donald Trump’s policies clearly were more effective than those of his successor, which essentially have been to stand by and do nothing while stonewalling state actions through the courts.

Our national security and national sovereignty should not be red issues or blue issues. They are red, white and blue issues. That’s the truth.

Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., serves as a member of the House Ways & Means Committee and as co-chair of the Northern Border Security Caucus.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden admits border isn't secure. His failure to fix it hurts us all