Madam Speaker, I rise today to follow up on the remarks of my friend from California, who just noted the crisis we have at the border and the danger that that puts the American people in, and not…
Madam Speaker, I rise today to follow up on the remarks of my friend from California, who just noted the crisis we have at the border and the danger that that puts the American people in, and not just the American people, but the immigrants who seek to come here.
I rise today, in particular, to bring the public's attention to that border crisis, which my friend rightfully recognized is being driven by that guy who runs that outfit over there.
Now, I do not mean, in saying that, the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin. I know who he is. I mean that other guy who runs that outfit over there, down Pennsylvania Avenue, and that is the President of the United States.
I say this because the President cannot possibly have any idea what is going on because no American President entrusted with the safety and well-being of the United States and her citizens would purposely empower cartels or would purposely empower illegal organizations to harm American citizens for profit, to flood our streets with dangerous fentanyl and narcotics, to cause high-speed chases like the ones that have occurred in the district I represent, where Americans are in danger, or the murder of Americans through wide-open borders. No American President would purposely do that, would they?
No American President would purposely lie to immigrants and cause them to get raped and abused on long, dangerous journeys across the desert, upon the promise of amnesty, for crass political purposes. No American President would possibly do that, would he or she?
No American President could be so callous, so indifferent to the lives of Americans and immigrants who seek to come here, that he would allow his staff and the Secretary of Homeland Security to lie, repeatedly, to the American people that there is no crisis at our border.
No American President would do that, so no American President could know that this is happening and take that position, could understand what is happening and then ignore it, could understand what is happening at the border and then deny it and encourage it through reckless policies.
No, that guy who runs that outfit over there cannot possibly know what is happening at our border because no American President would do that.
But I assure you, we Texans know; our neighbors in other border States
know; and the American people across the country affected by this crisis know. We see it every day, the brutal conditions along the border ravaged by the deceit and the lies of politicians governing by sound bite and pretending they are compassionate. We do see it every day.
Who is this that I am showing here on the floor of the United States House of Representatives? This is the Vargas family. I have come to know Lori, and I have come to know other members of this family because Jared, depicted in this picture, was murdered by a colleague at a restaurant who was in this country illegally, who had been caught, let go, caught, let go, caught again, let go, and then murdered Jared. He was from San Antonio, Texas, which I represent.
This is real. This happens every day. We, in Texas, are on the front lines while the people in this body fiddle, and endanger the lives of American citizens, to prostrate themselves to a crass political left that could care less about the American citizens getting killed or raped. And they do it for political purposes.
The arrogance of leftist Democrats destroying our own Nation with trillions of dollars of spending; the reckless disregard of our energy independence and strength; the reckless disregard of the small businesses getting destroyed by shutdowns and the livelihoods destroyed while peddling fear and panic; the reckless disregard of our children, as their futures are destroyed by teachers' unions and the devastating masking of their innocent faces; the reckless disregard of our fundamental inalienable rights to worship, to speak freely, to defend ourselves with firearms, to pursue happiness by working to provide for our families; the reckless disregard for our safety while defunding police and attacking our rights to defend ourselves under the Second Amendment at the same time, done on this floor today; the reckless disregard for our national security, while empowering China to undermine our way of life; the reckless disregard for public health, as we rejoin the very World Health Organization that lied to us to protect China.
But perhaps the most reckless, by my leftist Democratic colleagues, is the arrogance of using crass political selfishness to encourage parents to send their children to be raped, to be abused, to ride on train cars, and even to die along dangerous journeys, while simultaneously facilitating or encouraging the destruction of our neighbors to the south, in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras. It is happening in real time and in extraordinary arrogance, for purposes of crass political gain or perceived gain.
Our neighbors to the south lament the mass exodus of their people under the lies and false compassion being sold from American Democrats.
This is the truth of what we are dealing with.
Let's talk about some of the real issues going on on our border. Uvalde, Texas, the mayor, Don McLaughlin said, ``The 2019 border crisis will look like a cakewalk to what is coming with Biden's border crisis.''
He said they are seeing 10 to 12 high-speed chases each week, with speeds up to 105 miles an hour. The local government has to take it on the chin because this administration refuses to secure the border. That is the mayor in Uvalde, Texas, just outside of the district I represent. My friend, Mr. Gonzales, represents that district.
Don calls me all the time saying, ``Where's the help?''
Where is the Federal Government, whose job it is to secure the border of the United States? You know where it is?
Nowhere to be found. In fact, actually found at a border making it worse for the citizens of this country, making it more dangerous, purposely or incompetently, either one unacceptably endangering the lives of Americans and the immigrants who seek to come here.
Del Rio mayor Bruno Lozano said, ``I am pleading and requesting you to please put a halt to any measures regarding the release of immigrants awaiting court dates into the city of Del Rio and surrounding areas.''
Madam Speaker, the American people are pleading with their leadership. They are begging for the people in this body, the people's House, to recognize what is happening to them.
It is real. People bury their head in the sand up here protected by fences with razor wire, walking through magnetometers, tweeting out how they somehow compare or have compassion for immigrants, ``Look at us.'' And in this photo is what is happening to immigrants in south Texas.
There are mass graves where cartels kill people along the Rio Grande. There are people dying in the desert, seeking to come here like any normal person would do around the world, seeking to come to the United States of America, but being fed irrational hope from an administration for political purposes, endangering lives of immigrants and American citizens.
Yuma, Arizona, mayor Douglas Nichols said, ``I am urging the Federal level for additional resources for United States Customs and Border, the need for more space at migrant holding facilities that will allow for adherence to CDC guidelines, more COVID testing. There is no capacity in our current nonprofit system in Yuma.''
Our colleague, my friend from Texas, Mr. Cuellar, has said thousands of migrants have not been tested. Over 10,000 people have come in through the lower Rio Grande Valley. He said, ``Those folks aren't being tested.''
There are folks--my friends on the other side of the aisle who recognize what is happening.
My colleague, Mr. Gonzales, sent a letter to Biden, requesting a meeting, stating, ``It is imperative we get this situation under control or we are looking at another crisis on our hands.''
Well, that crisis is here, citing the large number of unaccompanied children and increased hospital admissions. This is happening right now.
Where is the President? Where is the Homeland Security Secretary? Where is anyone in this administration recognizing the crisis at our border, the death toll, the impact on citizens and immigrants who seek to come here?
Texas State senator, Chuy Hinojosa, Democrat, said, ``I don't think, quite frankly, the Biden administration was aware of what is happening on the ground here, which you can understand because they are just coming in and trying to get people up to speed with what is happening. But I don't think they were aware there were that many coming across. The Border Patrol is overwhelmed. They are throwing their hands up because they don't know what to do.''
That is all from my Democrat friend from Texas.
The CBP has already encountered nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants since October, and the numbers are rising. For contacts in the first 5 months of fiscal 2020, the CBP encountered 200,000. That is twice as many this year, twice as many.
What changed?
The administration's absurd, embarrassing, incompetent or, worse yet, purposefully malicious policies.
Just last month, February, the CBP encountered over 100,000 aliens at the border. One month. That is who they encountered. That is not got- aways. This is real.
Come do like I have done and go spend the night on the border. Go sit down at the river at the Rio Grande. Talk to the immigrants, in my case in broken Spanish. If you are fluent, talk to them or have somebody who can and talk to them about why they are coming. Talk to them about what the cartels are doing to them.
Have a conversation with a young man, like I did last year, about the pack of girls behind him, about whether they were abused on the journey. He said, ``Yes,'' ``Si.''
Or just continue to bury one's head in the sand and pretend it is compassionate to have open borders, because that is what is happening today in the people's House. These are human beings, y'all.
As of last month, the number of families encountered is the highest since January 2019. In January, 7,200--almost 7,300 family units were encountered. In February, that number skyrocketed to 19,246. That is not an accident. These are families.
Encounters with what we call UACs--unaccompanied alien children-- increased 74 percent year to date. Just last month, some 6,000 migrants aged 16 and 17 were caught. The Department
of Homeland Security currently projects there will be 117,000 unaccompanied child migrants crossing the border this year.
The number of migrant children is on pace to exceed the all-time record by 45 percent, and the administration does not have enough beds. The Biden administration needs another 20,000 beds to shelter the minors.
Now, I have a couple friends here, a couple colleagues, who I think are waiting to join.
Is the gentleman from California looking to add a few remarks?
I will yield to the gentleman from California in just one minute, and then my friend from Virginia after him.
But what I would say, when we are talking about these numbers, people get lost in the numbers, 20,000 beds, talking about 45 percent increase. Let's just be very clear. For those of us who spend time on the border--I am going back on Monday--these are human beings. These are people. They are not political pawns. And that goes for American citizens and for the immigrants who seek to come here.
And this is the dirty little secret. My Democratic colleagues know full well that what is happening at the border is going to be a catch- and-release organization. The Department of Homeland Security is turning the CBP into a catch-and-release organization. So you will see some of these numbers going down.
But don't kid yourself, the American people watching this. When the numbers go down in these facilities, it is because the Biden administration is purposefully catching and releasing folks, whether they have been tested or not, regardless of what kind of security threat they might pose, regardless of fully checking whether a child goes with a family member or not, whether they can be abused, put into the sex trafficking trade, because it is rote incompetence. When you see those numbers go down, just know what is happening.
11,000 people were caught and released in January and February, immediately caught and released from the CBP rather than being put in facilities.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California.
Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his remarks. He rightfully points out the impact on Miss Steinle and her family and American citizens in California being negatively impacted by illegal immigration.
I talked before about Jared Vargas from San Antonio, the city I represent, who was murdered a couple years ago. His twin brother just graduated from college. He is going on. His family is a beautiful family. They have a strong faith, and they are persevering, but their family was turned upside down by a brutal murder. He was beaten to death and burned. Beaten to death and burned by a guy who came here illegally, was caught and let go, caught and let go, caught and let go again. He beat and burned to death Jared Vargas.
These are real people. We can do hundreds of these. We can talk to the angel families who have lost loved ones. We can talk to the parents of law enforcement officers and others in Border Patrol who have lost loved ones along our border. We could do a whole hour, we could do a whole day just going through that impact and, as I pointed out before in the other slide, the impact on the immigrants who seek to come here.
This is the story, all in the false name of compassion by this administration.
I will be happy to yield in just 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia.
My friend from California was raising the important points of the impact of illegal immigration. Now we are seeing it in real time, particularly in Texas, among all four States along the border and throughout this country, empowering cartels, endangering the lives of the immigrants who seek to come here, endangering American citizens for one reason and one reason only, and that is the crass political interests of the American Democratic Party and this administration.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Virginia.
Madam Speaker, in a moment I will yield to the gentlewoman from Georgia, and I thank the gentleman from Virginia for those remarks that are directly on point.
What we are seeing right now--you used the phrase that we are creating a ``sanctuary Nation,'' is a sanctuary country. Well, that is what is happening. That is what this administration is doing. You talk about sanctuary cities; this administration is just going right past sanctuary cities, and they want to make the United States of America a sanctuary Nation.
They are turning the Department of Homeland Security and the CBP into the welcoming center for a sanctuary Nation. And not a welcoming center in the sense that we would all agree we want to do as Americans, to make sure that those who are truly seeking refuge following our laws, seeking asylum, the things that our laws provide for people truly under persecution. No. They are using that as an excuse and cover for wide- open borders and, essentially, people seeking economic opportunity, which no one I know begrudges those who seek economic opportunity. But we do take issue with those who seek to violate our laws to come here, overwhelm our border, and an administration whose job it is to enforce the laws of the United States to refuse to do so.
It begs the question whether the President of the United States, as I said before, either has no idea what is happening at the border or whether it is purposeful. And if it is purposeful, is it the President of the United States choosing to refuse to defend the Constitution and the laws and to refuse to take care to see that the laws of the United States are faithfully executed as is required under the Constitution of the United States? I think it is a question this body ought to be asking.
The people's House ought to be asking: Is the President of the United States refusing to take care to ensure that the laws of the United States with respect to our borders are being faithfully executed?
I would posit that that is precisely what is happening, or the President of the United States has no idea what is happening at our border. Because, again, no American President can be so callous as to use raw, crass politics to allow what is happening at our border to happen to human beings, American citizens and immigrants alike. ``That guy who runs that outfit over there.''
I yield to the gentlewoman from Georgia.
Madam Speaker, I appreciate the gentlewoman from Georgia coming down and joining us in this conversation.
I did not realize that the gentlewoman had the pleasure of meeting with and getting to know the Vargas family or at least maybe the aunt and uncle, I think is what you said. And what I would tell you is that it is a truly wonderful family. They embody all that is right and good about the American Dream, about opportunity.
These are American citizens, American citizens who happen to have, you know, Hispanic family members, which is so ironic because--you know, those of us who really try to take and honor the idea of judging people by the content of their character and not their skin color or race or creed, I find it ironic that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle seem to only view the purpose of the legislative body to view human beings by the color of their skin and to make all of our policies based on segmenting us out.
To quote the Supreme Court Justice John Roberts in a seminal Supreme Court case, Divvying us up by race is a sordid business.
And my colleagues on the other side of the aisle often use words like ``voter suppression'' when we talk about believing we should have voter identification. Believing we should have rules in place about how we run our election systems, heaven forbid.
And would the gentlewoman agree that too often those words like ``voter suppression'' are code words, buzz words for the allegation that those of us who believe a secure border is better for immigrants and American citizens believe that voter ID and systems that make sure American citizens are the ones voting that we are labeled bigots, and that words like ``voter suppression'' are code words and buzz words, dog whistles that we are bigots and that the agenda of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle is often directed to label us as such. Would the gentlewoman agree with that?
Madam Speaker, a brief moment, a side-step away from the issue of border security--and I know the gentleman is here and is waiting patiently--and I would just ask one more question.
The gentlewoman was here on Monday when we let it be known our desire to not allow 13 bills--10 Democratic bills, 3 Republican bills--to move off of the House floor by voice vote, that is without a roll call vote. And you would have thought that we, you know, lit a match on the floor of the House of Representatives or had done something extraordinary to just break this hallowed institution from its smooth operations of today.
You would think that we were, you know, up-ending our Constitution as we know it because, believe it or not, we demanded the yeas and nays, a roll call vote, on 13 bills. The gentlewoman has also often taken to using motions to adjourn--and I believe I have heard she has done so and the gentlewoman stipulates she has done so--to force another hour of consideration when we have a bill like the $1.9 trillion monstrosity that reshapes the American economy, reshapes the American healthcare system, funds money for people in prison, up-ends our entire fiscal stability, I could go on and on.
Is the gentlewoman in agreement with me that what we are trying to do is to simply put our colleagues on notice that perhaps the people's House should debate, vote, amend, be present, not vote by proxy from your home districts, actually be here, not have fences with razor wire, actually do our job, actually represent the people that elect us to come here, would the gentlewoman agree with that? I yield to the gentlewoman.
Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Georgia. I know I have my friend who has been waiting patiently, and so I will yield to that gentleman.
Madam Speaker, I would just note that the gentlewoman from Georgia mentioned video taken from southeast Texas this morning. I am looking at that on social media at the moment, a huge line of people waiting for smugglers to ferry them across the Rio Grande into the United States, video courtesy of Tripwires and Triggers, which is run by a fellow named Jaeson Jones, who is a good friend of mine, formerly with the Department of Public Safety in Texas.
Jaeson is on the job, on the spot, much like my friend Brandon Darby and others who work for Breitbart Texas who are on the spot, always trying to look out for the interests of Texans and American citizens, but also the immigrants who seek to come here.
These immigrants are being abused by cartels while my Democrat colleagues use them as political props. It is unconscionable that we are allowing that to continue in the greatest Nation in the history of the world, again, all for crass political purposes.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Montana (Mr. Rosendale).
Madam Speaker, reclaiming my time.
Would the gentleman be surprised if I recounted to him the story of when I was at the border last year at Laredo, and we were having a conversation with Border Patrol and went into one of the facilities, and we were talking to one of the fellows there. While we were there, through conversations with one of the young men who had come across-- frankly, encouraged to do so and come in and meet with Border Patrol in order to get across. He then gave up the location of a stash house in Houston, Texas, where we then went and found, that day, 50 immigrants in a basement, in a stash house in Houston, Texas, being held essentially for ransom.
These were human beings, the product of a broken system that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle hail as somehow pro-immigrant when it is decidedly the opposite of pro-immigrant.
Would the gentleman agree with that?
Madam Speaker, it certainly goes without saying.
I started my remarks earlier about the knowledge and the engagement of this President and the President's administration, that the policies of this administration, the policies of Democrat cities, the policies of Democrat States, with sanctuary cities and sanctuary States, and now, effectively, a sanctuary Nation, are directly causing the movement and the migration of human beings to come here, being exploited by cartels for profit, endangering their lives, endangering American citizens.
Yes, for any understanding of law, you are complicit in what is happening to the people in question.
Madam Speaker, and I would say to my friend that the scourge of human trafficking, in all of its elements--and human trafficking in the sense of the sex trafficking trade, modern-day slavery right here in the United States, people being under the thumb of dangerous organizations, cartels, and illegal organizations embedded in this country. It all has its roots and connections, in many ways, to the trafficking of human beings across our border for profit.
The power being put over these people, in which they are working in subpar conditions or put into the sex trade, that is happening in the greatest country in the history of the world, and it is all a direct consequence of accepting and embracing that lawlessness.
That lawlessness starts at our border and is also tied to our lack of enforcement and interior enforcement, through ICE, and the other cutbacks by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle.
Madam Speaker, may I inquire how much time is remaining.
Madam Speaker, what I would like to expand upon is an extension of what my friend from Montana was just talking about, what is happening to human beings here in the United States.
But now let's talk a little about the impact with respect to COVID and the pandemic that we are dealing with. The Biden administration, in its infinite wisdom directly causing what we are seeing at the border, relaxed title 42 to allow illegal alien minors to enter the country, leading to a massive surge of illegal immigrants at the border in total.
In February, CBP encountered nearly 9,500 unaccompanied alien children at the southern border. That is a 28 percent increase over January, more than 2,000 over last year, and, incredibly, almost 30,000 UACs have been encountered in just the first 5 months of the fiscal year, 30,000 children. That is nearly a thousand more UACs than the first 5 months of last year, but it is a 74 percent increase over fiscal year 2020 numbers.
Here is the thing: It is harming these kids, but it is also distracting Border Patrol from their job. They are turning Border Patrol into an entity that has to manage people, kids in facilities, but they are no longer doing their job between the ports of entry.
Do you know what that means? Fentanyl, narcotics. Why do we have a mass opioid crisis in this country? Now we are feeding into that as a literal, direct, and obvious result of the policies of this administration.
It has to be, as I said as I opened, either complete incompetence or purposeful. Either one of those is unacceptable.
Madam Speaker, Mexico is closing their Migrant Protection Protocol shelters where migrants are supposed to be tested and confirmed negative for COVID before being let into the United States. Reports have indicated at least 108 COVID-positive illegal aliens were released by CBP in one fell swoop. According to reports, at least 185 immigrants released in the past month in Brownsville tested positive.
Madam Speaker, 25 Border Patrol agents have died of COVID, but the administration is taking no major steps to prioritize those frontline workers for the vaccine in the last 2 months. Most of them are having to go into the communities to go get the vaccine, even though they are on the front lines, dealing with COVID-positive individuals coming across our border.
Madam Speaker, it is for this reason that my colleague from New Mexico, Yvette Herrell, introduced H.R. 471, the Protecting Americans from Unnecessary Spread upon Entry from COVID Act of 2021, or the PAUSE Act.
Title 42 must remain in effect under her act until all State and Federal lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, curfews, and other COVID mandates end; all public and Federal public health emergencies for COVID-19 end; and the CDC's COVID-19 travel health risk level for Canada and Mexico is reduced to level 1.
Madam Speaker, that is a good bill. We should continue to enforce title 42. There are 44 cosponsors to this bill, only Republicans.
Yesterday, I filed H. Res. 216, which is a rule to discharge this bill. When it ripens, which is another 8 or so legislative days, we are going to be pushing to discharge that bill from committee and vote on it on the floor of the House of Representatives.
I hope my Democrat colleagues will agree that we should enforce title 42 to protect American citizens and make sure that we don't have an epidemic at our southern border.
Madam Speaker, this is what we are facing, and it is a direct consequence of
an administration peddling amnesty and the false hope to immigrants to come here through dangerous channels, being abused by cartels in the process.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert), my friend.
Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from Texas for his remarks.
Madam Speaker, I think the gentleman who has spent time at the border, as I have, would appreciate the story that I can recount. When I was last there, there was a conversation involving a young man who had come across, and he was being questioned, as the gentleman just described. He was questioned about where he came from and all the things to go through, his age and so forth, and then at one point the young man said he needed to use the bathroom.
The Border Patrol agent said: Oh, sure, it is no problem. Let me get up and show you where it is.
He said: Oh, I know.
He knew. He knew where the bathroom was. This wasn't his first rodeo. This is happening every day at our border, literally every day.
But the media just goes about its business, ignoring the crisis now that it is not politically expedient to do so. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle spent the last 3 years saying that it is all a manufactured crisis and that there is no crisis at the border. Then with Trump, there was a crisis suddenly. There wasn't a crisis, and then there was a crisis.
Then there were people drinking out of toilets--a lie. Then it was kids in cages--a lie. Fences and barriers were put up in facilities to protect these kids and separate them from the dangerous elements to make sure someone claiming that they are this kid's uncle is actually the kid's uncle.
Those chain-link barriers that were put up in these facilities were put up by whom?
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert).
That is exactly correct.
Yet for 4 years under the Trump administration, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle went around ranting about the treatment of migrants, whom we are dealing with because of very broken policies, trying to protect the kids, keep them from being abused, put them in air-conditioned facilities with airflow, the chain-link barriers so you can see them--oh, no. Kids in cages. Oh, drinking out of a toilet. It was a lie. It was a straight-up lie.
I sent my chief of staff down the next day. He went to where they were talking about it, and it was one of those devices that is a toilet with a water fountain off the back of it, which we have in all of our facilities and in a lot of our prison facilities and ICE facilities in this country.
By the way, in every bathroom in America, the water supply behind the drywall is supplying the water to your faucet and the water to your toilet, Madam Speaker. Oh, but this is kids drinking out of toilets.
``Never let a crisis go to waste,'' say my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. We are seeing that right now with $1.9 trillion. We are seeing that right now. And we are seeing the result of that right now with a Biden border crisis directly of the making of this administration.
It is the direct consequence of undoing and refusing to enforce their laws; undoing the migrant protection protocol working with Mexico; refusing to fully enforce title 42; refusing to go through what you are supposed to do on asylum determinations; refusing to limit catch and release and instead turning the Department of Homeland Security into a catch-and-release organization, trumpeting an amnesty bill; and then attracting families to come through dangerous channels, risking their own children and lives at the hands of cartels, all to profit and enrich cartels; and then have the audacity to say that is compassion and the audacity to say that that is pro-immigrant.
Meanwhile, the people I represent, the Texans we represent, are having to foot the bill. We are having to deal with it. We are having to deal with schools. We are having to deal with high-speed chases. We are having to deal with crime, drug trafficking, and the reach of cartels in south Texas. And no one in this people's House gives a whit because of political expediency.
Madam Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?
Madam Speaker, I ask my friend from Texas if he has anything else he would like to add.
Madam Speaker, I will close my last minute to just say that it is currently easier for the cartels to exploit our Southern border and to allow gang members and dangerous narcotics to come into this country than it is for the American people to get access to the people's House. Fences with razor wire surround this building. We are apparently so afraid of what might happen to us in this body that we need fences and razor wire, but, meanwhile, our Southern border is wide open for exploitation.
I am only just reminded of when I started that the guy who runs that outfit over there in the White House, that the guy either is blatantly ignoring his duty to defend the border of the United States purposely or he has no idea what is going on, because no American President--no American President--
should or would allow this kind of activity to be happening at our Southern border, endangering American citizens and endangering immigrants in the name of the United States.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
