Border Codification Bill Clears First Committee – Here’s Who Voted for It

The push to permanently secure the border took its biggest step forward yet this week. On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee approved H.R. 9773, the Permanent Trump Secure Border Act, by a 16–14 vote after an hours-long markup – the first committee approval for border-codification legislation this Congress.

H.R. 9773 is the successor to H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act – the landmark border security bill House Republicans passed in 2023, only to watch it die in the Senate without a vote. This Congress, the framework is back, and this time it is moving.

The vote fell along party lines: every Republican who voted supported the bill, and every Democrat who voted opposed it.

Voting yes (16): Chairman Jim Jordan (OH), Tom McClintock (CA), Tom Tiffany (WI), Chip Roy (TX), Scott Fitzgerald (WI), Ben Cline (VA), Lance Gooden (TX), Jefferson Van Drew (NJ), Barry Moore (AL), Laurel Lee (FL), Kevin Kiley (CA), Glenn Grothman (WI), Brad Knott (NC), Mark Harris (NC), Derek Schmidt (KS), and Brandon Gill (TX).

Voting no (14): Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (MD), Jerrold Nadler (NY), Zoe Lofgren (CA), Steve Cohen (TN), Hank Johnson (GA), Pramila Jayapal (WA), Lou Correa (CA), Mary Gay Scanlon (PA), Lucy McBath (GA), Becca Balint (VT), Chuy García (IL), Daniel Goldman (NY), Jasmine Crockett (TX), and Summer Lee (PA).

What the bill does

The border package carries forward the core framework of H.R. 2 that would constitute the strongest border security bill in a generation:

• Border security and infrastructure – Resumes and strengthens construction of the border wall system, upgrades technology and staffing, requires DNA and biometric collection at the border, and permanently shuts down the CBP One app that was used to wave inadmissible aliens into the country.
• Asylum reform – Disqualifies migrants who pass through safe countries on the way to the U.S., strengthens the credible-fear standard so meritless claims are screened out early, imposes penalties for frivolous applications, and ends the practice of handing out work permits before claims have been adjudicated.
• Detention and family unity – Requires that those apprehended at the border be detained rather than released into the interior, and clarifies standards so families can be kept together through the process.
• Protection of children – Allows the safe repatriation of unaccompanied alien children from noncontiguous countries, closing the loophole that cartels have exploited to smuggle minors.
• Parole reform – Ends the abuse of parole authority that previous administrations used to admit hundreds of thousands of inadmissible aliens outside the law.

Why this vote matters

Illegal border crossings have fallen to lows not seen in decades – but nearly every policy responsible is an executive action, and everything achieved by executive action can be reversed by executive action. A future administration could reopen every door with the stroke of a pen. Writing these policies into statute is the only way to lock them in, and Tuesday’s vote is the first time this Congress has moved to do exactly that.

One note: unlike H.R. 2, this bill does not include mandatory E-Verify. Our campaigns for E-Verify legislation continue – and we’ll be ready if a serious effort emerges to add it to this bill.

What comes next

The bill now proceeds through additional committees, including Homeland Security, before it can reach the House floor. There is no set timetable – which means sustained constituent pressure matters most right now, while the committee process is underway. Members need to hear from home before the votes are scheduled, not after. H.R. 2 showed what happens when momentum stalls; H.R. 9773 is the chance to finish what it started.

Click here to send a message to your U.S. Representative urging them to support H.R. 9773.