On the line with Fort Riley's 1st Infantry Division at the southern border.
What's wrong. What it costs the patient. What we're doing about it. This page lays out Doc's record on border & security in three layers: the diagnosis, the prescription, and the receipts.
Our immigration system has been broken, but thanks to President Trump, we have secured the border and our streets are safer. I will always put our nation's safety above all.
What we're doing about it.
- Laken Riley Act (S. 5) — cosponsor, signed Jan 2025
- Build the Wall Act (S. 42) — cosponsor
- Border site visit, May 2025 — with 7 Kansas law enforcement officials
In detail.
Fentanyl is killing Kansans. Most of it comes through the southern border. The Laken Riley Act (S. 5) — which Doc cosponsored and President Trump signed into law on January 29, 2025 — was the first major bill of the 119th Congress: it requires ICE detention of unauthorized immigrants who commit certain crimes, including burglary, theft, assault on a law enforcement officer, or any offense causing death or serious injury. Doc also cosponsors the Build the Wall Act (S. 42).
Legal immigration is a separate question, and it matters to Kansas. Kansas farms — sorghum, cattle, wheat, the dairy operations across southwest Kansas — depend on the H-2A program. Doc has worked H-2A reform in committee and in coalition with Kansas Farm Bureau, the Kansas Livestock Association, Kansas Corn, Sorghum Growers, and the dairy producers' associations. Cutting off legal agricultural labor is not the answer Kansas asked for and is not the answer Doc has voted for.
On state-and-local enforcement: Doc has worked with the Kansas Sheriffs' Association, including the current Crawford County Sheriff Billy Tomasi and former Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden, to expand 287(g) participation in Kansas and get the state insurance pool to cover participating sheriffs. The line at the southern border is federal; the line in Kansas counties is a partnership. Doc has visited the border with Kansas law enforcement on three separate trips, the most recent on May 30, 2025.