Reaffirming the United States commitment to Taiwan and recognizing the 45th anniversary of the enactment of the Taiwan Relations Act.

Mr. Chair, may I ask how much time is remaining.

Mr. Chairman, I am prepared to close, and I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, while you may not know it from some of the language that is being used today, we are debating a poorly written ``reporting bill'' that will do nothing.

This bill is full of empty rhetoric, it makes no policy changes to address the outdated immigration system, and it provides no funding of any kind.

All this bill does is attempt to produce a onetime politically motivated report on the so-called Biden border crisis, just one report. That is it.

Give me a break.

Even though the entire bill is focused on reporting requirements related to the ``Biden border crisis,'' the bill doesn't even define the term.

It is as if we needed more proof that this is not serious legislation and that it is more about messaging than congressional oversight of the executive branch.

Why are we continuing to waste our time marking up these meaningless messaging bills?

I have said this before, and I am going to say it again because the same resolutions keep coming up over and over again, so I feel as if I need to repeat myself.

The situation at the border is directly linked to the fact that the legal immigration system has not been modernized in 30 years. It has been left in chaos because it has not been updated to meet the needs of our country today.

When the legal process is so outdated that it takes decades for green card holders to get their children into the country, or when employers simply can't get visas for the people that they need to hire because 2 million people are in processing backlogs, or when we have so few immigration judges that asylum seekers wait over 8 years to get their cases heard, then people turn to unscrupulous actors, including the cartels. The cartels promise desperate people that they can escape dangerous situations by paying cartels to get them in to seek safety by crossing the border.

If my colleagues on the other side were serious about addressing the situation, Republicans would work with us to fix the immigration system to provide people with workable ways to immigrate.

That would disempower the cartels. It would ensure the integrity of the border. It would give us what we all want, which is order at the border that is fueled and made possible by a legal immigration system that works and a legal immigration system that provides pathways for people to come to work here, to be with their families, and to contribute to our economy.

That is what we need right now, but here we are. Instead of that, we are defending a bill with no chance of becoming law or solving the problem. Republicans are showing clearly what we Democrats have been saying over and over again, that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle don't want to do anything that would help fix the broken immigration system. Instead of solving the problem, Republicans want to continue to weaponize the border as a political issue for this election year.

Rather than debating meaningless bills, we should be exploring how to meaningfully reform the broken immigration system and expand lawful immigration to the United States, given the very clear and documented benefits that that brings.

In 2021 alone, DACA recipients paid $6.5 billion in taxes; refugees paid almost $28 billion in taxes; and TPS holders paid $2.2 billion in taxes. Likewise, in 2021, undocumented immigrants paid approximately $18.6 million in Federal income taxes and $12.2 billion in State and local taxes.

Recently, the Department of Health and Human Services released a study demonstrating that refugees and asylees generated $124 billion in fiscal benefits over 15 years, and the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan entity, recently released a report finding that recent immigrants who joined the workforce will actually add $1 trillion of revenue to our country's GDP between 2023 and 2034.

It is also estimated that putting undocumented immigrants on a roadmap to citizenship would not only increase U.S. GDP by $1.7 trillion over the next decade, but that action would also raise wages for all Americans and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.

Unfortunately, Republicans talk a big game when it comes to immigration and border security, but instead of trying to pass thoughtful, bipartisan legislation to address problems in our immigration system, my colleagues waste our time on bills like the ones before us today.

Members don't have to just take it from me. The fact is that the second most conservative Republican Senator in the United States Senate crafted a bill with some Democratic support to put forward before us on immigration reform, and Republicans decided that the majority didn't even want to consider that bill or vote on that bill. Do my colleagues know why? Because Donald Trump told them not to because it would take away what Republicans see as an election issue.

I believe the American people are smarter than that.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to oppose this meaningless bill and to see very clearly that Republicans are not interested in solutions, in governing, but are just interested in meaningless messaging bills to try to divide us when we really should be celebrating the tremendous benefits that immigrants contribute to our country every single day.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment furthers the major drafting problems in this legislation by asking the Attorney General to report on how the so-called Biden border crisis impacted law enforcement recruiting.

As I said earlier, there is no definition for the ``Biden border crisis,'' and this amendment highlights just how unserious this legislation is.

How on Earth is the Attorney General supposed to determine how the border impacts law enforcement recruitment? Are local law enforcement agencies going to have to go to all the candidates who turned down job offers and ask them if their decision was influenced by the border?

This bill is a huge waste of time, and this amendment serves only to make this poorly drafted bill even more incomprehensible. I, therefore, oppose its adoption, and I encourage my colleagues to oppose it, as well.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment, even though I am not opposed to it.

Mr. Chairman, the Nunn amendment requires the Attorney General to report on how much each State spent on investigating fentanyl trafficked through the border.

I do not oppose this amendment because it does not repeat the same misleading talking points that Republicans often use when discussing fentanyl, and I am grateful to my colleague across the aisle for that.

I did want to make a couple of points on this because I think fentanyl is such an important issue in all of our districts. It is a scourge on all of our districts, all of our communities. We are all seeing the effects of fentanyl that is coming into this country.

We know that fentanyl is being smuggled into our country and that some of it comes through our southern border, but I do want to make clear that fentanyl is seized primarily at the ports of entry.

In fiscal year 2023, CBP seized approximately 27,000 pounds of fentanyl. Less than 10 percent of the drugs were actually seized by Border Patrol. The vast majority, roughly 90 percent of the drugs, were seized by the Office of Field Operations, which is the entity that mans the ports of entry.

I will be clear that the evidence does not show in any way that asylum seekers are bringing drugs to our shores. In fact, increasingly, drug cartels are being very smart about this. They are recruiting American citizens to bring drugs across the border through ports of entry. In 2022, over 89 percent of convicted fentanyl traffickers were American citizens.

If my Republican colleagues were serious about stopping the flow of fentanyl, the flow of drugs across the border, then I think we should be giving additional resources to the agencies that are manning those ports of entry.

Instead, all but six current House Republicans voted against the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which provided additional funding to ports of entry to combat the smuggling of people and drugs. All but two current House Republicans voted against providing robust funding for border security operations in the 2023 appropriations omnibus legislation, which provided more than $17 billion to Customs and Border Protection, including funding for an additional 300 Border Patrol agents.

The omnibus also included $60 million to hire 125 CBP officers and $70 million for nonintrusive inspection technology to detect narcotics and firearms at ports of entry. That is exactly the kind of technology that our Border Patrol agents are asking us for.

Republicans have also refused to consider President Biden's emergency supplemental funding request for additional border resources, which included $239 million to hire 1,000 additional CBP officers to stop fentanyl and other contraband from entering the United States. It included $100 million for ICE/Homeland Security Investigations to investigate and disrupt transnational criminal organizations and drug traffickers, and it included $849 million for cutting-edge detection technologies at ports of entry.

This is the work the Democrats have been doing to try to address the scourge of fentanyl that is coming across our southern border and coming into our country by supporting law enforcement and stopping that fentanyl.

Fentanyl is a huge problem in our communities. It is important that we support our law enforcement in fighting against it. This amendment would simply inform Congress about how much States are spending to combat fentanyl and, therefore, I see no reason to oppose it.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment requires the Attorney General to report on how local officers and resources have been reallocated to combat fentanyl trafficked through the border. I do not oppose the amendment because the amendment itself, like the previous amendment, does not repeat the same misleading talking points. I was ready to give my colleague across the aisle some credit again, but, unfortunately, the same misleading talking points were just repeated in talking about the amendment.

Fentanyl is not coming across the southern border because of some failed border policy. It is coming across the southern border primarily carried by American citizens at ports of entry.

This is about providing resources to our law enforcement officers on the southern border to be able to have the technology to detect that fentanyl. It is about providing enough people so that they can actually do the kind of monitoring that they are asking for. It is about providing the resources that Democrats put forward as the answer to this question and Republicans oppose time and time again.

I will be very clear that I appreciate the data that we are getting because fentanyl is a scourge. I have gone out with my local firefighters across Seattle multiple times, and I will tell you that 99 percent of their calls are responding to fentanyl overdoses, to opioid overdoses, and it is heartbreaking to see what is happening.

In fact, in my first year, I worked with Speaker Mike Johnson on a bipartisan allocation of money to provide other ways of dealing with overdoses due to opioids and fentanyl on the streets by actually providing supportive services for law enforcement so law enforcement wasn't having to deal with all of this. I don't think that this is something that the majority of our law enforcement members want to be dealing with in our cities.

I just want to be clear: We should be fighting the scourge of fentanyl. We should be doing it in a bipartisan way. We should not be doing it as part of some legislation that is meaningless, that puts the blame for what is happening with fentanyl on some ``Biden border policy that has failed.''

Combating fentanyl should be a priority for all of us regardless of what side of the aisle we are on. We should not repeat the talking points that are divisive and untrue in talking about this issue.

Fentanyl seizures shot up during the Trump administration and have continued to rise during the Biden administration. It is a bipartisan problem. Fentanyl poisoning is killing so many beloved members of our communities, and we have to do everything to stop it.

Republicans often assert, without any evidence, that asylum seekers are the ones that are bringing fentanyl onto our shores, even though the data suggests otherwise. Once again, I am going to repeat this: The vast majority of fentanyl that is seized coming into this country is seized at ports of entry, smuggled in by United States citizens.

Playing politics about such a deadly substance is extraordinarily irresponsible. Fortunately, the amendment itself is straightforward, and it aims to get more data about combating fentanyl so we can be better informed about how it is impacting our communities.

The underlying legislation, on the other hand, and some of the talking

points that are used by my colleagues across the aisle is not that. The underlying legislation is poorly written, and it is misleading. The talking points are misleading, but the amendment is clear, and so because of that, I see no reason to oppose it.

Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, here I was coming to the floor thinking that I could support an amendment that made sense to me about fighting the scourge of fentanyl, and I do support the amendment because I think data will be good for us.

I just would say to my friend across the aisle: Shutting down the border is not going to fix this problem. By saying that and by continuing to use those divisive talking points, he is moving us away from a solution to the really dire issue of fentanyl that is killing our communities.

Let's work together in a bipartisan way to actually deal with the scourge of fentanyl. Let's not put it on the border and let's not pretend that shutting down the border is going to help because, as I said, fentanyl poisoning rose under the Trump administration, and Donald Trump did try to shut down the border until the courts prevented him from doing that.

The reality here is, we have a real problem. We have a real problem. I was willing to come to the floor and support this amendment because I think the data is important, and I hope my colleague across the aisle will recognize that sticking to the facts, as he did in his amendment, is the most important thing to actually addressing the issue of fentanyl.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 8146.

Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chair, on Inauguration Day of 2021, our borders were secure. The Trump remain in Mexico policy had cut phony asylum claims to a trickle. The border wall was nearing completion. The court-ordered deportations were being enforced. By the end of that day, President Biden had reversed those policies, and thus began the greatest illegal mass migration in history.

Since that day, he has allowed 6.9 million illegal migrants to enter our country and demand free food, free clothing, free legal assistance, free education, free shelter, free lodging, free phones, and free cash. Except, of course, it is not the least bit free. It all comes out of the earnings of American families and out of the services that we set aside for Americans in need.

Unlike legal immigrants who obey our laws and do everything our country asks of them, the first act of these 6.9 million aliens who have illegally entered our country is to commit a Federal crime. I have watched them personally taunt our Border Patrol at the border as they do so.

Woke cities and States have passed sanctuary laws that forbid our law enforcement officials to turn over illegal aliens who have committed other crimes to ICE for deportation as the law requires. This administration has made these policies national by refusing to enforce over a million court-ordered deportations.

It shouldn't surprise us that many who are willing to violate our immigration laws are also willing to violate the rest of our laws, as well. The number of terrorist suspects that the Border Patrol has encountered has ballooned exponentially, and law enforcement officials are warning that among the 1.9 million got-aways--mostly single, military-aged men--is likely a dangerous fifth column, which could soon launch devastating attacks within our borders.

Fentanyl brought in through the open border is killing hundreds of Americans every day. The Democrats' sanctuary policies hamstring attempts to deport criminal illegal aliens. Worst of all, the admission of untold thousands of the most vicious gang members on the planet is now producing a terrible butcher's bill of murders and assaults on Americans.

When the Federation for American Immigration Reform looked at the requests by States to be reimbursed for the cost of incarcerating aliens, they found that immigrants are 231 percent more likely jailed for crimes in California, 440 percent more likely in New Jersey, and 60 percent more likely in Texas, just to name a few.

Immigrants are 231 percent more likely to be jailed in California, according to their own SCAAP numbers. You won't find that anywhere else because it is illegal in California to otherwise report the immigration status of criminals and criminal suspects. By their criteria, not a single crime is committed by illegals in California, yet their jails are overflowing with them.

As of last December, there were at least 617,000 aliens on Immigration and Customs Enforcement's non-detained docket who have criminal convictions or pending criminal charges. Yet, these dangerous offenders are out on American streets, free to re-offend.

This past year, Mr. Biden removed 60 percent fewer criminal illegal aliens than Trump did in 2019 despite an exponential increase of illegal aliens entering our country, and we are seeing the results every day in murders and assaults on America's streets and in empty chairs at Americans' family dinner tables.

Earlier this year, New York City Police Commissioner Edward Caban declared that ``a wave of migrant crime has washed over our city.'' He should know because, earlier this year, a group of illegal aliens brutally assaulted two NYPD officers. New York Mayor Eric Adams described the assault as ``an attack on the foundation of our symbol of safety.'' He then called on the city council to consider if there should be more collaboration with Federal immigration officials. I suppose it is better late than never.

The bill before us today, H.R. 8146, the Police Our Border Act, requires the Attorney General to submit a report to Congress on the impact of the Biden border policies on law enforcement officers. This report would document officer safety concerns that are linked to increased cross-border movement, such as fentanyl exposure and assaults on law enforcement officers. The report would also examine the overall burden of this unfolding tragedy on law enforcement capabilities and officer morale.

Our men and women in blue continue to protect our communities even when our communities don't fully support them. We owe them better as a nation. With this measure, we declare our determination to recognize and document the threats they face so that we can enact measures to make it harder for a President to ever again unleash these threats upon the American people.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, when my friend complains about partisan Republican rhetoric, I would advise him to listen to his own constituents who are begging their Representatives in New York and Chicago and Denver whose social services are being overwhelmed by the tidal wave of illegal immigration that this administration has unleashed and that my friend has defended every day in this House.

He complains that the term ``Biden border crisis'' isn't defined. He might want to open his eyes and look around him or open his ears to hear the pleas of his own constituents.

Mr. Chair, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New York (Mr. D'Esposito), the author of this measure.

Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chair, my friend calls the Senate bill the only viable bill.

If it is so viable, then where is it?

The Senate bill could not be passed by the Senate.

H.R. 2 was passed out of this House and did ultimately receive, I believe, 47 votes in the Senate. The Democrats love to tout the Senate bill. That bill would not have ended Biden's open-border policies. It would have institutionalized them.

Current law gives the President full authority to secure our border. Trump proved that. It requires asylum claimants to be detained. Trump did that.

This bill that he talks about would leave future Presidents powerless to secure the border until illegal immigration reaches 4,000 a day, 1.5 million a year, and it would have required that they be released into our country. That is the Democrats' idea of border security, a guaranteed 4,000 illegal aliens being released into our country every day.

Mr. Chair, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Bacon).

Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chair, in response to that tirade, let me just remind the gentlewoman that 6.9 million illegal immigrants have been admitted into our country in violation of our immigration laws since this administration took office.

The gentlewoman speaks of all the taxpayer money that she generously volunteers to pour into our social services. Well, I have news for her: That safety net has been shredded by their open-border policies.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates that just in the last year the cost to our public schools is $70 billion just to educate the children of the illegals whom they have admitted into this country and $22 billion in costs to our hospitals.

Now, I submit to you, Mr. Chair, that if Republicans were to suggest we should cut $70 billion from public education or $22 billion from our public hospitals, there would be complete outrage on the other side of the aisle, and yet that is exactly what their open-border policies are costing us right now. That is a travesty.

There is one way to solve this, and that is to secure our borders as we had accomplished under President Trump.

That is why there are so many Members over there right now to defend a President who actually is serious about defending our borders.

Mr. Chair, I am ready to close when the gentlewoman is, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Pfluger).

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.

To sum up, without law enforcement, there is no law, and without law, there is no civilization. Without immigration enforcement, there are no borders. Without borders, there is no country.

This is where the woke left is taking us, and it is time for Americans to decide how much farther we want to allow them to take us down this dismal and dangerous road.

I think the American people are entitled to ask this administration and its apologists in this Congress: How do we make our streets safer by making it all but impossible to deport criminal illegal aliens, as the law requires? How do we make our families safer by flooding our communities with deadly fentanyl?

How do we make our children safer by not vetting every person who enters our country to keep the criminals out? How do we make our neighborhoods safer by refusing to prosecute criminal illegal aliens to the fullest extent of the law? How do we make our highways safer by creating the conditions of deadly high-speed chases and drunk driving? How do we protect our country as untold numbers of terrorists enter among the 1.9 million known got-aways who have entered under Joe Biden's nose? How do we make our communities safer as criminal gangs and criminal cartels set up shop in our cities for their lethal business of child trafficking, drug trafficking, extortion, and crime?

These are the questions that have gone unanswered since this administration took office and with which our local law enforcement officials must grapple every day at the peril of their own lives in order to protect ours.

The Democrats just don't seem to care, but America cares. Americans are dealing with this entirely preventable crisis every day, and our law enforcement officers are the heroes who protect our families and our communities every day. We owe it to them to document the truth, to acknowledge it, and to act on it. That is what this bill would do, and I urge the House to adopt it.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, who does the gentlewoman think she is kidding? Who does the gentlewoman suggest we assign responsibility for this catastrophe that has overwhelmed our country and its social services, its criminal justice system, and its citizens?

On January 20, 2021, the border was secure, the Trump policies were working. On that day, our laws didn't change, the Presidency changed. On that day, the Trump policies were reversed by one person, Joseph Biden.

Mr. Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. LaLota).

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. D'Esposito).

Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.

Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chair, this year, our Republican majority has wasted time passing three different but equally meaningless resolutions related to the Biden administration's immigration policies. This week, we debated a fourth.

We now move on to yet another meaningless and poorly written piece of immigration legislation. Just like the four resolutions, this bill is full of empty rhetoric that will do nothing to solve the situation at the border.

Not a single dollar will go to help our law enforcement agents at the border as a result of this bill. Not a single person will be denied entry to this country as a result of this bill. Not a single community will be made safer as a result of this bill.

It is just another stale attempt to demonize and fearmonger about immigrants wrapped in fresh packaging.

The bill itself is an oddly written and thrown together reporting bill that claims to require the Attorney General to produce a report on the impact of the Biden border crisis on Federal, State and Tribal law enforcement.

When it comes to reporting bills, I am usually supportive. It is essential for us to conduct oversight of the executive branch, and reports are an important way to do that.

Unfortunately, this bill is such a sham and is riddled with so much misinformation and blatantly partisan political rhetoric masquerading as fact that I cannot support it.

Here is just one example of how poorly written the bill is. It requires the Attorney General to report on the impact of the so-called Biden border crisis without defining that term. Without a definition, the term is meaningless, and the Attorney General would have no guidance to know what data the report should actually contain.

The obvious cheap political rhetoric exposes this legislation as an unserious messaging bill. Beyond that, in a world where my Republican colleagues consistently say that they do not trust the Attorney General to carry out their intent, the lack of definitions makes little sense.

The bill also attempts, incorrectly, to paint undocumented migrants as being the primary source of fentanyl brought into the country, when we know that this is not true. The vast majority of fentanyl is seized at ports of entry, trafficked by U.S. citizens. Over 86 percent of those convicted for fentanyl-related drug trafficking convictions are U.S. citizens.

Furthermore, cartels are not risking their product on people who illicitly cross the border between points of entry. In fiscal year 2023, CBP seized approximately 27,000 pounds of fentanyl. Less than 10 percent of those drugs were seized by the Border Patrol.

The vast majority, or roughly 90 percent of fentanyl, was seized by the Office of Field Operations, which mans the ports of entry.

Lastly, the bill asks the Attorney General to report on the resources devoted to addressing the border and the resources that are ``not available to law enforcement agencies.''

However, at every turn, it has been Republicans who have voted against giving DHS the resources it needs to do its job. In 2021, all but six current House Republicans voted against the bipartisan infrastructure deal, which provided additional funding to modernize ports of entry and allow for nonintrusive inspections to combat the smuggling of people and drugs.

Likewise, all but two current House Republicans voted against providing robust funding for Customs and Border Protection and border security operations in the FY 2023 appropriations omnibus legislation.

That bill provided more than $17 billion to CBP, including $60 million to hire an additional 125 CBP officers and $70 million for nonintrusive inspection technology to detect narcotics and firearms at ports of entry.

When it comes to the President's supplemental request, which would provide $14 billion for border security, we have not had a single hearing, let alone a vote on the request. The President has requested vital funds for 375 immigration judges and 1,600 asylum officers to speed up processing of asylum claims so that people could get their asylum claims adjudicated in weeks, not in years.

The Republicans are fond of talking about catch and release, but that is because it takes years for someone to get his asylum case adjudicated. The President has requested these funds, and if he got the 375 immigration judges and 1,600 asylum officers as well as the funds, you would adjudicate these cases in weeks, not years.

He has also asked for funds for additional personnel at ports of entry and technology to stop drugs from coming into the country. The Republicans have said no.

As a final indication of just how unserious this bill is, its findings state that Congress should pass and the President should sign into law ``strong border security legislation.''

Never mind the fact that it was House Republicans who walked away from a bill negotiated by one of the most conservative Members of the Senate, a bill that Senator McConnell called the toughest border bill in 30 years, all because Donald Trump told them he wanted the issue for the election, not a solution.

Now, I know my Republican friends will say, well, there is H.R. 2, which is a better bill. Well, I don't know whether it is a better bill, but it is a bill that cannot pass. It could not get more than 32 votes in the Senate with 49 Republican Members.

You don't get strong border security legislation by passing congressional resolutions and reports. You have to do the hard work of legislating, but that appears to be far beyond the capacity of this Republican majority. Instead, they are reduced to pointless bills like this that accomplish nothing and are full of misleading talking points.

We deserve better than this waste of time.

I urge my colleagues to oppose this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

My friend from New York talks about the Biden border crisis, and he talks about the bill that failed in the Senate because the former President, former President Trump, told the Senate, told Republicans not to vote for it because he wanted an issue. He didn't want the problem solved; he wanted an issue.

He said it in his own words. Congressman Nehls said it in his own words.

H.R. 2, which they claim to support, in fact, would never get more than 32 votes in a 49 Republican Member Senate. Republicans didn't support it, never mind the Democrats.

The only viable bill was the bill negotiated by Mitch McConnell and Senator Lankford. It was the most conservative bill in a generation, and one that was supported by the union representing the Border Patrol people. However, that bill was killed because President Trump wanted no progress and said so. At least he was honest about it. He said: I don't want any progress in this area. I want an issue.

My Republican friends are talking about the issue that could have been solved by now if it weren't for President Trump's ordering them not to solve it.

We will hear a lot of rhetoric about solving a problem when they are participating in what amounts to a plot not to solve the problem by passing the strict bill that could have been passed, that was supported by and that is supported by the union representing the border patrolmen and could actually solve the problem.

They don't want to solve the problem. They just want to talk about the problem.

Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Ms. Stansbury).

Mr. Chairman, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment, even though I am not opposed to it.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment would update the report required by this bill to include the nationality of any noncitizen who exposes a law enforcement officer to fentanyl during an encounter at the border and in the United States.

Just like the underlying bill, this amendment is another attempt to incorrectly paint undocumented migrants as being the prime source of fentanyl brought into the country.

We already know that the vast majority of fentanyl is seized at ports of entry, trafficked by U.S. citizens. As I stated previously, in fiscal year 2023, CBP seized approximately 27,000 pounds of fentanyl.

Less than 10 percent of these drugs were seized by the Border Patrol. The vast majority, roughly 90 percent of the fentanyl was seized by the Office of Field Operations, which mans the ports of entry.

My Republican colleagues always respond that this is the case because ports of entry are where we have resources to interdict the drugs, but this is also wrong.

Unfortunately, because Republicans refuse to adequately fund ports of entry, only 2 percent of passenger vehicles and 16 percent of commercial vehicles are inspected.

We would likely catch even more drugs carried in by U.S. citizens if CBP had all the resources it needed. However, at every turn, it has been Republicans who have voted against giving DHS the resources it needs to do its job.

This bill is so full of misinformation and could actually use some facts, so I will not oppose this amendment.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment would update the findings section of this bill to include a provision that states that it is in the best interests of law enforcement officers and the communities they serve for President Biden to use section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to secure the southern border.

To be clear, the President does not have the authority to unilaterally shut down the border. President Biden cannot simply use Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to prevent immigrants from crossing the border. In fact, when President Trump tried to do exactly that in 2018, he was immediately shot down by the courts.

Moreover, enforcement-only solutions don't work. The best way to secure the border is to expand lawful pathways and to adequately fund the immigration system.

We have not updated our legal immigration system in over 30 years. The more broken the legal immigration system is, the more people will try to come to the border as the only means of entry.

This notion that the President has all the authority, not to mention the resources, that he needs to solve all the issues at the border with a stroke of his pen is a fantasy.

Congress must work together to provide the legal tools and the resources necessary to address the border crisis.

I know that there are Democrats willing to put in the hard work, but we have yet to find any House Republicans who are willing to do so. This amendment is as unserious as the underlying bill. I will oppose both, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I am not really sure where to begin.

My friend across the aisle said that we would talk about H.R. 2, but that it didn't have the votes to pass. Well, I think we are in the same situation as the imaginary bill he talks about which never made it out of the Senate and wasn't a solution. It was a surrender.

If you need a definition of the ``Biden border crisis,'' let's talk about the over 8 million illegal migrants that have come over this border since Joe Biden has taken office.

Let's talk about the over 1.3 million known got-aways that have come into this country that we don't know what they are doing, who they are talking to, or who they are associating with.

Let's talk about the record number of illegal narcotics that have come across the southern border.

Let's talk about the problems, the draining of resources that the migrant crisis, the Biden border crisis, is leaving on law enforcement across this country.

I am not just going to focus on police departments back in New York. Let's start farther away. Let's start with and talk about sheriffs and deputies along the southern border who have said that the Biden border crisis has affected

every single bit of industry in their State or county.

Let's talk about sheriffs that, Mr. Chair, we have visited who have said their jails are full to capacity. Why? Because of the Biden border crisis.

I am not really sure what my good friend from New York across the aisle needs more explanation about the Biden border crisis, but I will tell you this: Law enforcement throughout this country has made it explicitly clear. They have made it explicitly clear that they need help, that they need communication, and that is exactly what this bill does.

It is not a messaging bill.

It requires the Justice Department to provide to law enforcement agencies information, intelligence, and explain to them the issues that are plaguing this country that the migrants are affecting so that we, Congress, can provide the resources that these law enforcement agencies need.

Now, this isn't just Republicans talking about this. The very city that my friend across the aisle represents, the mayor of the city of New York, Eric Adams, has said: ``The migrant crisis will destroy New York City.''

I have to remind my friend across the aisle that the very department who provides him executive protection, the New York City Police Department, has said that they need more information and that communication between law enforcement agencies should be better. Whether it is Customs and Border Protection, whether it is local agencies, whether it is other Federal agencies, the communication should be better.

So this is a step in the right direction to make sure that law enforcement agencies throughout the country have the ability and have the information that they need to effectively protect and serve the communities they represent.

You see, H.R. 2 was a great starting point. Over a year ago, House Republicans not only put H.R. 2 across the finish line in the Homeland Security Committee but got it across the finish line on the floor of this House. It was voted against by Democrats. It was sent over to the Senate where it has collected dust on Chuck Schumer's desk. It has collected dust, and in the process, the crisis at our southern border, Mr. Chair, the Biden border crisis, has gotten worse. It has affected more people. People have died because of the failed policies of Joe Biden and Secretary Mayorkas.

The fact that we have our colleagues on the other side of the aisle saying that this is about messaging, well, Mr. Chair, I wonder if they would deliver that same message to the family and loved ones of victims who have fallen prey to the Biden border crisis.

Mr. Chair, when we are back home in our districts, we need to assure our constituents. They need to know that we are committed and dedicated to fact-finding and well-researched policy.

Mr. Chair, the other side of the aisle can't support this simply because they are trying to deny that there is even a crisis. The fact that we are wondering what is the definition of the Biden border crisis is actually scary. It is either they are not paying attention, they are not reading the newspapers, they are not focused on the facts, or they just don't care.

What I will tell you is there is a crisis, and the crisis has gotten worse because of Joe Biden.

We have seen migrants in some videos that have gone viral on social media. As a matter of fact, two of the victims of some of these crimes were my guests right here at the State of the Union, two members of the NYPD who were brutally attacked in Midtown Manhattan by illegal migrants.

We know for a fact that migrants smuggle narcotics into this country. We know for a fact that illegal migrants have been arrested for brutal crimes and for making communities less safe.

We know for a fact that illegal migrants have been part of burglary rings, not just in sanctuary cities, but in places that surround them, like my home on Long Island.

This is a crisis. It is the Biden border crisis. This piece of legislation is common sense. It is about making sure that we provide the necessary information, communication, and resources to law enforcement agencies throughout this country so that they can continue to do the best with what they have, they continue to do the best with the hurdles that are in front of them, that they continue to do the best because they are facing, just like all of us, the historic disaster at our southern border that is the Biden border crisis.

Mr. Chair, I rise as the designee of the gentleman from New York (Mr. Molinaro), and I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment, offered by my good friend and fellow New Yorker, Mr. Molinaro, would add an important provision to my legislation. If adopted, it would ensure that my bill, in addition to measuring things like exposure to fentanyl, injuries, and morale, would also measure the Biden border crisis' effects on recruitment.

Mr. Chairman, in my capacity as a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, we have taken time to interview countless law enforcement professionals from all across this Nation and at every rank. Mr. Chairman, we have heard time and time again that today's political climate, both in terms of the demands made of law enforcement but also the flagrant lack of respect and appreciation for law enforcement by many on the other side of the aisle, has made it difficult to recruit and retain law enforcement officers.

It is for that reason that I am proud to offer and support Mr. Molinaro's amendment to my bill. It is in the interest of the American people that we learn all the effects of this tragic Biden border crisis on law enforcement, including and especially this crisis' effect on recruitment.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, everyone knows the reality of the crisis at the southern border. We know that narco-terrorist groups are exploiting President Biden's weakness to import record amounts of fentanyl into the United States.

Just two milligrams of fentanyl, the size of a few grains of sand, is a lethal dose. Seizures of this uniquely dangerous drug by law enforcement agencies have doubled, if not tripled in some places. We are catching only a fraction of the fentanyl entering our Nation, and more data on this issue is the first step toward stopping that.

Mr. Chair, I encourage all of my colleagues to support Mr. Nunn's amendment.

Mr. Speaker, my colleague on the other side of the aisle said that our bosses deserve better. She is right, the American people do deserve better.

Over the tenure of Joe Biden, he has made this country less safe. Like my friend from New York mentioned, by the stroke of a pen, President Biden can begin changing the course of this country, but unfortunately he won't because he doesn't want to.

As a matter of fact, in his first days in office, he used that same pen to create this disaster that we are dealing with right now, an unprecedented historical number of migrants illegally coming into the United States of America, some involved in terrorist organizations, smuggling illegal narcotics into this country.

You are correct, our bosses do deserve better. The American people do deserve better. I encourage you to encourage your side of the aisle to please have Joe Biden use that pen and put this country back on track.

Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, the administration's failure to secure our southern border has turned all of our States into border States.

The administration's open-border policies have allowed an influx of over 8 million illegal migrants and more than 27,000 pounds of deadly fentanyl, and that is just what we know of, to enter our country.

Earlier this year, fentanyl hurt so many of our families, so I invited folks from my district. Deric and Kathy Kidd joined me to hear what our country could do during the State of the Union to help fight the fentanyl crisis, the synthetic drug made in China that enters our country illegally, primarily through our southern border, which has so far been left completely unprotected. We honor the loss of their son.

At 17, he lost his life and became one of 150 Americans every day dying from the fentanyl crisis.

We looked for answers from the administration to close the border that they could do on day one, to be able to stand up and make sure that catch and release is ended, and to reinstate remain in Mexico.

The administration chose to do none of those things, and they have put our law enforcement on the front lines of defending our communities not just from local policing but from the threat posed by this deadly drug.

Mr. Chair, no family should experience what the Kidd family did. This, in their own words, could and should have been prevented but, unfortunately, it remains.

Most recently, Interstate 35 that extends from Mexico north right into my district in Iowa was the site of the largest seizure of fentanyl near Des Moines. A 35-year-old male traveling from the southern border was intercepted not by Border Patrol or Federal law enforcement but by local police. They seized 30,000 fentanyl pills in his car. Let's not forget one teaspoon is more than enough to kill an entire community.

Luckily, our law enforcement officers were able to intercept these drugs and made sure they did not make it to our State and were not on our streets. There is no doubt that we must secure our border to prevent drugs from flowing into our country, but we also need to address the strain that this places on families and our local first responders.

In conversations with sheriffs at the police departments in my district, I have talked with too many officers who shared their work and how it is being consumed in the fight against fentanyl.

The bottom line is that local law enforcement officers should not be overloaded with these issues when we have a Federal responsibility to assist them.

To better understand how big of an impact fentanyl is on our communities, my amendment would require the Department of Justice to detail how much States have spent on local law enforcement efforts to investigate, intercept, and process fentanyl that has been trafficked across U.S. borders.

By understanding the root of this challenge, we can better allocate resources and make sure our local law enforcement has the support they need.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment and the underlying bill by Representative D'Esposito, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Indiana (Mrs. Houchin).

Mr. Chair, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from New York (Mr. D'Esposito).

Mr. Chair, I think this can be a bipartisan solution. It impacts all of our communities, all of our cops, and all of our families.

Mr. Chair, I urge passage of the amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, the influx of fentanyl at the southern border has truly impacted every American community.

Since 2021, overdose losses due to fentanyl have exceeded 200,000. We are losing over 150 neighbors, community members, and children daily due to this deadly drug.

It is truly a weapon of mass destruction, produced in China, and sent to the United States with a clear result of killing our country.

This crisis has persisted due to the open-border policies of this administration. The mass importation of fentanyl that is being created is resulting in more and more of not only Communist China's ability to influence but Mexican-based cartels to enter and terrorize every American community.

It is a flood of illicit drugs, and it is costing every single community more. The lack of enforcement on our southern border to deal with this flow of fentanyl is being felt, most poignantly, by our frontline defenders, the brave men and women in uniform, our first responders, many of whom are already facing staffing shortages back home.

Mr. Chair, I thank the men and women who are both the front line and now the last line in the battle against fentanyl in our communities.

I do a lot of ride-alongs with my sheriffs and my local law enforcement, and I have seen firsthand how fentanyl has hollowed out communities and created great pain for so many. There is more that we can do. Our officers are left thinly spread out, our constituents are under siege, and our communities are literally dying as a result of failed policy.

We need to better understand the full scope of the fentanyl crisis, including the impacts that are occurring to our local law enforcement. My amendment to this bill would require the Department of Justice to report to Congress on how many law enforcement officers have been reassigned, how many local resources have been reallocated, how many community policing programs have been reprioritized or, in some cases, not prioritized because fentanyl has become the number one issue that so many of our local law enforcement has had to address.

Gaining visibility on where our local officers are spending their time, prioritizing the threat, and appropriately separating and addressing the issues at the State and Federal levels, respectively, is not only imperative; it is simply prudent.

I am proud to offer this amendment and urge my colleagues to support it, along with the underlying text.

Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I thank my colleague on the other side of the aisle. I think we can all agree that fentanyl is a challenge and that it is killing Americans at an unprecedented rate. Fentanyl now kills more Americans from my daughter's age to my age, and I am getting to be an old man. We should not be in this position.

The reality is that our frontline defenders have become our local law enforcement, and collectively I think we absolutely agree that this should never have happened. This amendment moves forward with the ability to identify this and to help to prioritize these resources.

I will say to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle: There is a way to end this. We recognize immediately that fentanyl comes largely from China. We recognize immediately that it is coming across our southern border, and in this there is no dispute.

``Shut down the border'' should be a great mantra for all of us to be able to save lives. Today, the administration can do that. It can end the catch and release program; it can reinstate a remain in Mexico policy; it can ensure that the drugs flowing across our southern border are intercepted there, so they don't end up being intercepted on our streets, in our hometowns, in the heart of the heartland in communities like mine in Iowa.

Mr. Chair, I don't want to see another child, friend, or neighbor die because we at the Federal level have failed to do our job. By prioritizing these resources, we can better identify what other services are being left behind and what other communities are endangered because their first priority has to be intercepting fentanyl.

Mr. Chair, I encourage passage of the amendment and the underlying bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.