From The Desk Of Congressman Chris Smith

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Chris Smith (R-4th) announced that the US Army Corps of Engineers will begin a significant dredging operation on the Manasquan Inlet to ensure the channel remains safe for marine traffic.

“The Army Corps will conduct significant dredging of the Manasquan Inlet…in response to repeated concerns brought to me by local anglers to ensure the channel is safe for boat traffic and to mitigate any potential hazards like the large sandbar that developed last summer,” said Smith.

The imminent dredging project is the result of the Army Corps’ regular monitoring of the Inlet - including a recent survey conducted on January 10 th - that Smith requested in August when a dramatic build-up of sand threatened to bring the busy fishing and boating season to a grinding halt.

Smith said that once the vessel arrives, the Corps will predominantly work in the Shark River Inlet - while dredging one to two loads of sand in the Manasquan Inlet each day - before shifting fully to the Manasquan Inlet for five days in early February.

“Ensuring the safety of our local fishing and boating community is of paramount importance,” said Smith. “I am grateful for the Army Corp’s response and commitment to keep the waterway clear for our local recreational and commercial vessels as well as their dedicated follow through over the past few months.”

In August, Smith asked the Corps to conduct an emergency survey of the Manasquan Inlet after meeting with leaders in the local fishing industry who raised concerns over a large and potentially dangerous sandbar that was developing in the waterway.

While the sonar survey of the Inlet showed the channel remained safe for boat traffic at the time, Smith requested the Corps come back every few weeks to repeat the survey out of an abundance of caution.

The dredging will be completed by the Army Corps’ MURDEN vessel - a 156foot by 35-foot split-hull hopper dredge with a draft of five feet that is designed for shallow inlets and rivers along the Atlantic coast.

“Especially with the temperate weather we expect over the next few weeks, the Army Corps’ dredging comes not a moment too soon,” Smith said.

Senators Cory Booker and Bob Menendez: Lawmakers Push Back Against Biden Administration’s Proposed Asylum Transit Ban

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Cory Booker and Bob Menendez (both D-N.J.) and U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.-14), alongside Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA), Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX-35), and Rep. Raúl Grijalva (DAZ-07), led a bicameral group of nearly 80 lawmakers urging President Joe Biden to reverse his administration’s expansion of the failed border policy known as Title 42 and to abandon the proposed asylum “transit ban” rule.” The lawmakers also encouraged the President and his administration to work with Congress to ensure they develop safe, humane, and orderly border policies that enforce our immigration laws and uphold the right to asylum under domestic and international law.

“The administration’s announced border enforcement actions circumvent [domestic and international] law by not only expanding Title 42 beyond what is required by any court but by further implementing policies to deter and penalize people exercising their legal right to seek asylum at the border,” wrote the bicameral group of lawmakers to President Biden. “…We are therefore distressed by the deeply inconsistent choice to expand restrictions on asylum seekers after your administration determined it was no longer necessary for public health. Title 42 circumvents domestic law and international law. Human rights groups have extensively documented more than 10,000 violent attacks – including kidnappings, serious assaults, and deaths – against individuals who were expelled to or blocked in Mexico due to Title 42 since the beginning of your administra- tion, with a disproportionate impact on Black, Brown, LGBTQ+, and Indigenous migrants.”

Sens. Booker and Menendez and Reps. Ocasio-Cortez and Casar hosted a press conference outside the Senate steps to detail their request to President Biden.

“We are further concerned by the administration’s announcement that it will be issuing a proposed rulemaking in the coming days that would require asylum seekers to fi rst apply for asylum in a transit country instead of allowing them to seek their legal right to asylum at our southern border. This, in effect, is a transit ban. The courts rightly rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to categorically end asylum when he similarly required asylum seekers to seek asylum in transit countries,” added the lawmakers.

“Specifically, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that the Trump-Era Third Country Transit ban violated well-settled U.S. asylum laws that prohibit turning people away unless they have ‘firmly resettled’ in a transit country, especially not if conditions in the transit country are not safe… At the time of this ruling, countries across the Western Hemisphere were unable to meet such requirements. There does not appear to be evidence to show that country conditions in transit countries have improved since the relevant appellate decision was rendered as to justify a new Third Country Transit bar. As the administration well knows, current conditions in Mexico – the primary transit country – cannot ensure safety for the families seeking refuge in the United States.”

“It is unconscionable that asylum seekers have no option but to sleep in the streets of El Paso, in overcrowded shelters in Juarez, or in tents in Reynosa, but new asylum restrictions against migrants will not solve this problem. We believe that your administration can and must continue to expand legal pathways for migrants and refugees into the United States – without further dismantling the right to seek asylum at our border. This right is a pillar of the post-war international order to which the United States has committed itself. We are ready to work with you to ensure that we can have a safe, humane, and orderly border that upholds the right to asylum,” concluded the lawmakers.

Joining Sens. Booker, Menendez, Luján, and Padilla in signing the letter in the Senate are Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Tina Smith (D-MN), Brian Schatz (D-HI), and Peter Welch (D-VT). Joining Reps. Ocasio-Cortez, Casar, and Grijalva in signing the letter in the House are Reps. Jesús G. “Chuy” García (D-IL-04), Juan Vargas (D-CA52), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-12), Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.-13), Nanette Barragán (D-CA-44), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.-12), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL-09), Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.-16), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.-At-Large), Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.-07), Hank

Johnson (D-GA-04), Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.-09), Sylvia Garcia (D-TX-29), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA-07), Tony Cárdenas (D-CA-29), Judy Chu (D-CA28), Lou Correa (D-CA-46), Cori Bush (D-MO-01), Grace Meng (D-N.Y.-06), Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA-10), Barbara Lee (D-CA-12), Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL-20), Joaquin Castro (D-TX-20), Frederica Wilson (D-FL-24), Adam Smith (D-WA-09), Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05), Shri Thanedar (D-MI13), Jim McGovern (D-MA-02), Gerry Connolly (D-VA-11), Jimmy Gomez (D-CA-34), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA-07), Gwen Moore (D-WI-04), Delia Ramirez (D-IL-03), Chellie Pingree (D-ME-01), Dwight Evans (D-PA-03), Becca Balint (D-VT-At-Large), Grace Napolitano (DCA-31), Mark Takano (D-CA-39), Frank Pallone (D-N.J.-06), Robert Garcia (DCA-42), Betty McCollum (D-MN-04), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR-03), Doris Matsui (D-CA-07), Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.-03), Norma Torres (D-CA-35), Maxwell Frost (D-FL-10), Rob Menendez (D-N.J.-08), Danny Davis (D-IL-07), Donald Payne Jr. (D-N.J.-10), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA-37), Mark Pocan (D-WI-02), Adam Schiff (D-CA-30), Ted Lieu (D-CA-36), Jill Tokuda (D-HI02), Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.-15), Linda Sanchez (D-CA-38), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03), Alma Adams (D-N.C.-12), Lori Trahan (D-MA-03), Katie Porter (D-CA-47), and Summer Lee (D-PA-12).

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