This Week With Gosar

Weekly Newsletter

June 7, 2026

House Passes Gosar Amendment to Strengthen New World Screwworm Inspections

This week, the House of Representatives passed the FY 2027 Agriculture Appropriations Act , including my amendment to provide an additional $2 million for New World Screwworm inspections at our nation's ports of entry.

This commonsense amendment redirects a modest amount of funding from USDA administrative IT functions to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), ensuring more resources are available on the front lines to protect American agriculture.

The amendment's inclusion comes at a critical time. Just this week, USDA confirmed the first U.S. detection of New World Screwworm in Texas , highlighting the growing threat this destructive parasite poses to livestock, wildlife, pets, and even humans.

For ranchers and farmers across Arizona and the Southwest, preventing an outbreak is far less costly than responding to one. By strengthening inspections at our borders, this amendment helps safeguard our agricultural producers, food supply, and rural economies from a serious and costly threat. I am pleased the House included this important measure in the final FY 2027 Agriculture Appropriations bill.

Protecting Arizona's Forests and Rural Communities

This week, I participated in a House Natural Resources Subcommittee hearing on the state of our nation's federal forests and preparations for the 2026 wildfire season.

Wildfire remains one of the greatest threats facing Arizona. Just last month, the Jones Fire near Wickenburg and the Hazen Fire near Buckeye burned within my district. While both fires were contained on state lands, Arizona's checkerboard pattern of federal and state ownership often complicates wildfire prevention, coordination, and response efforts.

During the hearing, I questioned U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz about drought mitigation, forest health, and watershed protection in Arizona. I also raised concerns about ensuring rural communities continue to receive reliable Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) and Secure Rural Schools (SRS) funding, which many counties depend upon to support schools, public safety, roads, and other essential services.

I also highlighted the devastating Dragon Bravo and White Sage fires from last year, which burned more than 200,000 acres and caused significant damage to the Grand Canyon's North Rim and the Kaibab National Forest. These fires underscore the urgent need for better forest management and a more effective wildfire strategy.

Healthy forests are critical to Arizona's rural communities, economy, water resources, and way of life. That is why I support efforts to reduce hazardous fuels, improve forest resilience, strengthen watersheds, and modernize outdated federal regulations that stand in the way of responsible land management.

I appreciate President Trump's leadership in establishing the U.S. Wildland Fire Service and remain committed to advancing policies that better protect Arizona communities, our public lands, and future generations.

From Crossing the Border Illegally to the Driver's Seat

Troubling news this week note that Border Patrol agents in the Yuma Sector recently conducted Operation Checkmate, a targeted enforcement operation aimed at identifying and removing illegal aliens operating commercial motor vehicles.

The operation resulted in 52 arrests, including 36 individuals driving semi-trucks with commercial driver's licenses issued by California, New York, Washington, and Virginia.

That should alarm every American.

Federal law is clear: individuals who are unlawfully present in the United States should not be receiving commercial driver's licenses. Yet states determined to undermine immigration enforcement continue finding ways to place illegal aliens behind the wheel of 40-ton trucks traveling on our highways.

The root of this problem is the Biden administration's abuse of humanitarian parole.

Humanitarian parole was intended to be used sparingly for exceptional cases involving urgent humanitarian crises. Instead, Biden transformed it into a mass-entry program that allowed millions of foreign nationals to enter the country through the CBP One app with little scrutiny and virtually no meaningful vetting.

Rather than securing the border, the administration created a system that bypassed normal immigration procedures and flooded the country with individuals who had never been properly inspected or admitted under existing law.

Predictably, many never appeared for immigration proceedings. Yet instead of facing removal, they were granted work authorization and access to benefits while remaining in the country indefinitely.

The result was exactly what critics warned would happen: millions of people were released into the United States with little oversight, limited accountability, and no realistic plan to ensure compliance with immigration law.

Now we are seeing the consequences.

States with sanctuary policies continue issuing licenses to individuals who should not be in the country in the first place. Most have zero commercial driving experience. Others face repeated testing failures before ultimately receiving credentials. Americans are left sharing the road with drivers who never should have been authorized to operate commercial vehicles.

This is not compassion. It is recklessness.

Every state has a responsibility to protect public safety, not advance a political agenda. Issuing commercial driver's licenses to illegal aliens places American motorists, truckers, and families at unnecessary risk.

I commend the men and women of the Yuma Sector and Customs and Border Protection for exposing this problem and taking action. I also applaud Transportation Secretary Duffy for moving to prohibit illegal aliens and parolees from operating commercial motor vehicles.

The American people deserve secure borders, enforcement of immigration law, and safe highways. The Biden administration's open-border policies delivered the opposite.

Biological Threats at Our Border

Earlier this week, federal authorities charged two foreign nationals after they allegedly attempted to smuggle 113 vials containing deactivated monkeypox material into the United States through Detroit Metropolitan Airport. According to investigators, the men falsely described the contents of their luggage to Customs and Border Protection officers.

Thankfully, CBP caught them.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident.

Over the past year, federal authorities have uncovered multiple attempts by foreign nationals to bring dangerous biological materials into the United States. As I noted in a previous newsletter , two Chinese nationals were charged last year after allegedly attempting to smuggle a destructive crop pathogen capable of devastating wheat, barley, corn, and rice production. Last December, additional Chinese nationals connected to the University of Michigan were accused of bringing biological materials contaminated with roundworm into the country. As you may remember from last week's newsletter , Border Patrol agents intercepted six Chinese nationals dressed in construction gear and camouflage. I rhetorically asked the question, why would these Chinese nationals attempt to illegally enter the United States through the southern border?

Taken together, these incidents reveal a troubling reality: America's research institutions, transportation hubs, and borders remain attractive targets for foreign actors seeking access to our country, our economy, and our critical industries.

For decades, the Chinese Communist Party has engaged in espionage, intellectual property theft, and efforts to undermine American economic and national security interests. That is why heightened scrutiny of foreign nationals working in sensitive research fields is not discrimination-it is common sense.

I applaud Customs and Border Protection for intercepting these materials before they could enter the country. Their work serves as a reminder that border security is about far more than illegal immigration. It is also about protecting Americans from biological threats, agricultural sabotage, espionage, and other dangers that rarely make headlines until it is too late.

President Trump has rightly prioritized stronger border enforcement and greater scrutiny of foreign nationals seeking access to sensitive sectors of our economy and research institutions. These recent cases demonstrate exactly why that vigilance is necessary.

America's security depends on knowing who and what is entering our country. The men and women of our Customs and Border Patrol continue to prove every day that they are one of our first and most important lines of defense.

Tweet of the Week:

Photo of the Week:

Mary Ferrari from Fort Mohave, AZ shares this great photo of a bougainvillea bush hear her home. Incredible picture, Mary. Keep sending them in!

Do you want the chance for your photograph to be featured as our "Photo of the Week?" If so, send your best shots along with a brief description to [email protected] . Remember to include your name and where you live.

Gosar in the News and Other Must-Read Stories:

National Forest Foundation: National Forest Foundation Marks National Trails Day By Highlighting Restoration Projects Nationwide

Just the News: 'Transgender experiments on animals' banned in NIH spending bill upon request of GOP lawmakers

Politico: 2 researchers charged with smuggling mpox into the US

KJZZ: Desalinated ocean water gets one step closer to helping Arizona with drought troubles

Daily Signal: California's Slow Roll Vote-Counting Is an Outrage

⚠ Warning!! The Gosar Weekly Newsletter is meant for discerning readers with above-average intelligence. We link to interesting stories. We get stories a couple different ways: Google alerts, a third-party aggregator and sometimes readers send stuff. We don't vouch for every publication or every author. If we link to a story, it is because of that story. The views expressed in any of the publications do not represent any promotion, endorsement or reflection of Congressman Gosar's views. While we try our best, we cannot guarantee every news organization spouting hatred, animosity or divisiveness will be filtered from appearing in the Gosar Weekly Newsletter. We will endeavor to prevent that from happening by never linking to Fake News organizations including CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Rolling Stone, the Arizona Republic, the Arizona Mirror, Media Matters or the New Republic.