SEC Act of 2025

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

Mr. Speaker, this bill is not good for national security. That is plain and simple.

This bill would require Customs and Border Protection to publish sensitive detailed national security information on a monthly basis. This information would give the bad guys around the world real-time updates on DHS operations and targeting.

Let's be clear. A special interest alien, an SIA, does not mean someone who is a terrorist. It just means that someone's travel patterns indicate a need for further scrutiny. It means they need more detailed questioning to determine what is going on.

During markup and during the Rules Committee meeting, we heard from my Republican colleagues how the Department already publishes information about known and suspected terrorists. That is true. However, this bill demands that DHS post far more detailed information about special interest aliens than DHS publishes about known suspected terrorists.

Today, DHS publishes suspected terrorist information on a monthly basis, broken down by Border Patrol and ports of entry. No other data is published.

Here, my colleague from Georgia wants DHS to publish more information about special interest aliens than they publish about suspected terrorists. For special interest aliens, she also wants information published in real time about where they are from and where they are encountered.

If Ms. Greene's bill mirrored what we report on known and suspected terrorists, I would be happy to support it. However, that is simply not the case here. By publishing this information in real time, bad actors would be able to tell who is getting advanced screening from CBP. They will also be able to tell which locations have been the most successful in interdicting those migrants that need enhanced screening.

Bad actors will adjust their operations in response and try to avoid extra screening, which will only hurt our national security.

Please note, Mr. Speaker, DHS has never publicly released these numbers on a real-time basis because this information, these numbers, are essentially sensitive data we don't want to be made public. As the chair just stated, DHS already has the ability to publish these numbers if they were to choose to make these numbers public.

Mr. Speaker, if it is safe to do, then why isn't DHS already doing it?

I would say, Mr. Speaker, let the security professionals decide what to publish and when. That is their job, not ours. Ours is to legislate. They have the ability to make decisions now. Let them make these decisions.

I ask my colleagues to let the Secretary, again, make the decisions and publish the information they deem safe and correct.

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

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

This legislation simply puts our national security at risk by forcing DHS to hand over parts of its playbook on how it stops potential actors from entering the United States. It is all going to make us less safe.

This bill would require Customs and Border Protection to publish sensitive national security information on a monthly real-time basis. We are not talking about personal identifiable information, despite the author's claim. We are talking about releasing who CBP is looking for, targeting, and where those advance interviews are actually happening in real time.

This essentially gives the bad people the opportunity to coordinate, triangulate, and take advantage of the situation, essentially to know what our playbook is.

We all support transparency and accountability at DHS--that is our job here in Congress--but not at the expense of tipping off terrorists or criminal organizations as to what our playbook is.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Thompson), the ranking member of the Committee on Homeland Security.

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

I am listening to this debate, and we are not debating. We are just talking. Again, for the third time I am going to say: We support transparency. We support this information being made public if the Secretary so deems it to be made public in the interest of our national security. That is all we are saying.

We are Members of Congress. We believe in transparency, accountability, and oversight. That is why folks on this side of the aisle are writing countless letters right now to the Secretary of Homeland Security demanding information so that we can do our job. That is transparency.

I don't know when the last time was that my colleagues were at the border. I was just in San Ysidro a couple weeks ago. I can tell you I went to the secondary inspection. Fentanyl is still coming through that border. People were still breaking through that border. The fact is that border is not secure. That is why you have 2,000 U.S.

border agents and 20,000 Mexican border agents trying to work on this issue.

This opposition to this legislation is based on national security. We are saying if this is information that the author thinks is not sensitive, let the Secretary of Homeland Security make that decision to present it. This legislation isn't necessary. You don't want to mandate it. You want to let the anti-terrorist experts make that decision.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Ramirez), a leading member of the Committee on Homeland Security.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I will make it clear to my colleagues and those who are watching this that the Secretary already has the power to disclose this information. All we are saying is to let the Secretary and the terrorist expert decide what should be disclosed in real time. What goes on at the border in real time is the key here.

We support full transparency and accountability of the Department of Homeland Security. That is why a lot of us, including yours truly, were going to those ICE detention centers in my district for the last 2 weeks. I could

walk in, and I had a good relationship with those individuals. Then, about a week ago, I was told: You can't come in anymore. You need a 7- day notice.

According to the law, there is no notice that Members of Congress need to give to do an inspection of an ICE holding facility.

They are not doing anything wrong? Okay, so then what is wrong with me coming in and looking at the ICE facility? Transparency, Mr. Speaker, all we are asking for is transparency.

The chairman talked about those cases and due process. I can't speak to those specific ones, but I can speak to what is going on in my district right now. The reason we want more transparency is because I want to make sure that the President of the United States knows what is going on. He promised to go after criminals, those visa overstays, those individuals with orders of deportation, and those individuals who came in, in the last 2 years.

That is the minority, the smallest number, of the people who are actually being apprehended. I say that because the President came out last week and said that we don't want to go after farmworkers, dairy farm workers, and hospitality workers. The President said that we don't want to go after these individuals. We want to go after those three categories.

Mr. Speaker, I will tell you that, back home right now, most of the people who are being rounded up are workers in factories and workers in farms who are picking our crops.

That is part of the American economic strength. The President needs to know that his immigration policies, as being implemented right now, are not what he is saying and not what he deems is good for this country.

That is what transparency and accountability is about, oversight, making sure what they are saying up top is what actually is happening at the ground level.

My colleagues may have seen this story just last week. A gardener at Home Depot gets picked up. He has been in the United States for 25 years. He didn't even have a traffic ticket.

Do you know what the sad part is, Mr. Speaker? Three of his sons are marines in the U.S. Marine Corps.

The President needs to know that he is deporting individuals of mixed households whose children are in the U.S. military.

I am not quite sure--actually, I am certain that is not what the President wanted to happen. That is what our oversight is, to let him know and the public know exactly what is going on in our districts.

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

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 530, I call up the bill (H.R. 275) to require the Secretary of Homeland Security to publish on a monthly basis the number of special interest aliens encountered attempting to unlawfully enter the United States, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 275.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 257, the Special Interest Alien Reporting Act of 2025.

This legislation is a critical step toward enhancing transparency and ensuring the Department of Homeland Security provides accurate and timely reporting to the American people regarding encounters with special interest aliens attempting to illegally enter the United States.

As chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, I fully support this effort to strengthen oversight and accountability within DHS and safeguard our national security.

Under the Biden-Harris administration's dangerous open-borders policies, droves of special interest aliens, nearly 2 million, and many of them leveraging illicit smuggling networks and irregular migration patterns, flocked to our borders and exploited catch and release policies to access the interior of our country.

The American people deserve to know not just how many entered our country and when, but where they came from.

Fundamentally, this bill simply requires DHS to publicly report on how many special interest aliens were encountered, their countries of origin, and their last country of residence before trying to enter the United States illegally.

The genius of this bill is that DHS can simply add it to the statistics it already reports on a monthly basis. This

avoids any burdensome or duplicative reporting requirements for the department.

Also, by simply reporting the number and nationality of SIA encounters at our borders, it has no impact on the integrity of ongoing anti-terrorism investigations and efforts of Federal law enforcement.

Moreover, access to accurate information is critical for Congress to effectively conduct proper oversight, promote national security measures, and protect our American communities from the threats that special interest aliens pose.

I simply cannot overstate the importance of passing this legislation, especially given the recent activity in the Middle East.

I am proud to be an original cosponsor of this bill, and I am grateful to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Ms. Greene) for bringing forth this important piece of legislation and for the support of the following cosponsors: Mr. Higgins, Mr. Guest, Mr. Pfluger, Mr. Crane, and Mr. Brecheen.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Ms. Greene), who is the author of this piece of legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Higgins).

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

Mr. Speaker, I will address some of the comments that I have heard from my colleagues and shine a little bit of light of truth on some of this.

My colleague, the gentleman from California (Mr. Correa), mentioned that this would serve as an incentive or intelligence to the bad guys. This reports where they are from and the country they came in from. There are no methodologies discussed on how we are apprehending people. We are not giving away national security information about how our agencies operate.

Reporting that an SIA is coming from a particular country or has a particular nation of origin that they started from is not an incentive to anyone. In fact, it is a disincentive to those individuals. For those governments to know that we have an eye on it is a good thing, not a bad thing.

As far as a playbook, it was mentioned earlier, I think, Mr. Speaker, that we were giving away our playbook. Again, not a single method is reported. Not a single process is reported. None of that information is out there. We are not talking about releasing how we do business. We are talking about whom we have apprehended.

It is ridiculous to suggest that this is somehow a threat to national security. I spent 24 years of my life as an infantry officer, a physician, and a special operations physician with our Nation's highest tier-one level assets. I can tell my colleagues that I now sit on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and have for years. I have served on HASC. No one cares more. I was prepared to give my life. My son currently serves defending this country.

This is not a threat to national security, and I suggest that people take the word of people like me over that of some activist.

This incredible mantra about starving people at detention facilities, well, I have been to these detention facilities. I have seen the stacks of snacks and crackers, the meals, and the healthcare that they get, and this after subjecting themselves willfully to, in many cases, an arduous trek, while wearing the same clothing, I will add. The travesty of that was pointed out earlier. Mr. Speaker, I can't tell you how many days I sat in the same set of BDUs downrange for the country.

Let's look at what is really happening at these ICE detention centers. It is absolutely a liberal, Democratic mantra to just throw that out there as somehow a reason not to support a piece of legislation like this. It is absurd.

Do you know what? The American people are waking up to this, and that is a beautiful thing. I agree with my colleague Mr. Higgins. I hope my Democratic colleagues do call for a vote.

I don't know how many times we can correct the record on this kidnapping of a mother and children with cancer. The mother elected on two occasions when offered the opportunity--she had a court order saying that she had to go. Yes, she had been here a while. The process is long. It takes a while to get the court to do it.

When the court decides, that is due process. Due process has occurred. The court has ordered her removal. They were offered: Do you want your child to have healthcare here, or do you want to take them? We will take them with.

It is false to suggest, in this image that is being painted by the left, that ICE burst down the door, grabbed a child with cancer, and deported them.

Again, the American people are a lot smarter; hence, the results of the last election.

I just wanted to make a few comments, Mr. Speaker, about the stuff I have heard today that just infuriates me and infuriates the American people.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I will close with this. The American people deserve to know where the special interest aliens entering the United States are coming from and where CBP is encountering them.

This legislation proposes transparency that is vital to the public's awareness while maintaining the confidentiality of the individuals encountered and the strategies used by CBP.

My colleague mentioned the term ``real time.'' Wouldn't it have been nice to know in real time about the Iranians who are now in this country?

The administration has, I think, successfully removed well over 100 in just the past 7 days, 1 of whom turned out to be a sniper from the Iranian special guard, the Quds Force. Just open the door and let everybody in.

Wouldn't that have been great to know? That would have been nice to have some real-time information for the American people.

What is interesting is--it is almost laughable--I actually saw a Democratic pundit on television talking about how President Trump shouldn't bomb or shouldn't have bombed Iran because the terror cells that are here might get activated. Well, Democrats let them in.

Those are the same folks who say that Americans shouldn't have guns to defend themselves, but I digress.

This legislation is especially prevalent following the Biden administration's failure to secure the border and protect the American people.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this effort to defend the American people and maintain transparency, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in favor of my bill, the Special Interest Alien Reporting Act of 2025, an essential piece of border security transparency legislation.

A special interest alien, or SIA, is a non-U.S. person who, based on a DHS analysis of travel patterns, may pose a national security risk to the United States or its interests. My bill would require the Department of Homeland Security to publicly release monthly reports on the number of special interest aliens encountered at our borders, their countries of origin, and where they were encountered. This bill would be retroactive to January 20, 2021, so that we can get a better sense of the catastrophic national security impacts of the Biden-Harris administration's open-borders policies.

I will say that is likely why Democrats are fighting this bill so hard.

DHS publicly reports detailed information on encounters and seizures, including CBP encounters of individuals on the terrorist screening dataset, better known as the terrorist watch list, which is an even more targeted and specific number than the number of SIAs. However, missing from DHS reporting is information on SIA encounters. Instead, Congress and the American people have been left only with random, incomplete announcements periodically released by DHS officials, or through leaks to the media.

Similar to the information released on the terrorist screening dataset, my bill would require DHS to report general encounter information on special interest aliens and would not include any personally identifiable information.

No matter how many times my Democrat colleagues say it, there is no personal information released.

In fact, senior DHS officials, like the former Border Patrol chief, have occasionally put out some of these numbers on social media and elsewhere.

Public reporting of SIAs will increase the transparency and accountability that are critical to the health of our constitutional Republic. Congress has the authority and responsibility to provide transparency to the American people, which is exactly what my bill does.

I would argue the American people pay our paychecks, so they deserve to know the truth.

The Biden-Harris administration's disastrous policies placed the United States in an extremely vulnerable national security position. Under Biden and Harris, our sovereign borders became revolving doors for illegal aliens, including an untold number of murderers, rapists, and potential terrorists who hate our country and want to cause harm to our people.

Over the past 4 years, CBP faced an unprecedented number of special interest aliens from the 26 countries that the Department of Homeland Security has determined pose the greatest national security and counterintelligence threat. Those encountered included individuals from adversarial nations, including the People's Republic of China, Iran, Afghanistan, and Syria.

The Biden-Harris administration's intentional disregard for our laws and breakdown of national security resulted in U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountering over 1.7 million special interest aliens. Many of these individuals were swiftly processed and released into the interior under the Biden-Harris administration's catch and release policies. The American people deserve to know who our government is encountering at the border and where they came from while they are attempting to invade our country illegally.

Given the ongoing events in the Middle East, this legislation is essential for Congress to conduct congressional oversight over the special interest aliens encountered invading our borders. During the Biden-Harris administration, the Border Patrol apprehended over 1,500 Iranian nationals illegally crossing the Southwest border between ports of entry.

Of those, Biden and Harris admitted 729, almost one-half. We don't know where they are now, and we don't know what they may do.

With Iran threatening Americans with retaliatory strikes on our homeland, President Biden and border czar Kamala Harris created an opportunity for our adversaries to gain access to our Nation and wreak havoc when called upon.

I am proud that the Trump administration supports this important piece of legislation, and I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to please support this increase in transparency and accountability within our government.

Mr. Speaker, what is it that the Democrats don't want the American people to know? It is a legitimate consideration that the citizenry from sea to shining sea should ask themselves right now. What exactly is the problem?

They say again and again, oh, DHS could do this if they wanted to. They already report to us. We are saying exactly that: The special interest alien data should be reported to Congress along with the rest of the data.

Why would the Democrats take a big stand? This is the former chairman of Homeland Security and current ranking member, who has been on the committee for a long time. This is a rare appearance on the House floor to push back against about this.

Americans should think about this. Democrats are pushing back on this because they don't want the citizens of America to know what special interest aliens, who participated in suspicious travel patterns, came into our country illegally in 2021, '22, '23, and '24. Because you know how many are coming in in 2025? Zero are coming in. That is how many. That is because we have an executive branch that has been enforcing American law since January 20 of 2025.

We, the people, demand to know what is the data of so-called special interest aliens. These are suspicious-travel-pattern, illegal immigrants coming into our country. We want to know: Where did they come from? How did they get here? Where were they before? We want to know all the data that we allegedly collected. Congress has a right to know.

Why would DHS need Congress to codify their authority to give us this data? It is because of activist radical judges that stop the executive branch. Every day Americans have to read about that garbage, a radical judge stopping the elected President from performing his role as Commander in Chief and President of the United States.

The executive branch needs Members of Congress to perform like my friend and colleague, Ms. Marjorie Taylor Greene, has done by presenting this law. I am a proud original cosponsor. The President needs this legislation to mitigate against the radical judges that will try to stop him from releasing through Congress to the American people the data from 2021, '22, '23, and '24 of what suspected illegal aliens came into our country that fit this category.

Now, across the country and in this body, most Americans know I am very plugged into law enforcement. I get calls every day from these guys, boots on the ground across the country, including deep in Federal law enforcement, and they support this law. Don't tell me that Federal law enforcement doesn't want to do this or it is bad for the country in some way. That is smoke. That is smoke that is being put out by Democrats to protect themselves from the impact of the reveal of the truth of just what kind of people that fit this category were allowed into our country. They were waved in for 4 years. It was stopped almost immediately in January of this year.

I am clearly in full support of the bill. I am proud to be an original cosponsor of the bill. We are going to bring this bill to the floor, and they are going to call for a recorded vote. I am glad they will. I hope you do call for a recorded vote because I want you on the record pushing a red button.

Mr. Speaker, I support this bill, and I urge my colleagues to support it also.

Mr. Speaker, of course I rise in opposition to H.R. 275.

Before I get into the conversation of the bill that we are debating today, I want to respond to this whole thing about transparency that I continue to hear my colleagues talk about. They talk about smoke on this side, and they are all about transparency.

Well, if Republicans are really all about transparency, why is it that Members of Congress can't show up to a detention center and do their congressional oversight and see what is going on in those detention centers?

It seems like Republicans are okay with transparency when it is convenient to them, but when it is about Members of Congress, regardless of their party that they are a part of, going to one of these detention centers or holding centers, they are not okay with transparency. We have heard that pregnant women are sleeping on the ground being starved and people are wearing the same clothing for days because they are at a holding center where they should have been going through due process.

Unfortunately, there is no transparency there because what they end up saying is, send an email or transparency only works when it is convenient to the Republicans.

I just want to say it is really hypocritical to hear my colleagues here talk about transparency when they seem to be hiding violations of human rights every single day.

I want to be honest about the bill we are debating right now. This is not a bill of national security. If it were, it wouldn't propose to make sensitive security information public.

No, this bill is just Republicans' latest attempt to give the Trump administration another anti-immigrant tool so that they can continue to do the fear-mongering that they know how to do so well. It is just another list that Donald Trump and Kristi Noem and Republicans and the sponsor here can use to justify their unlawful, abusive actions.

You want to disappear people from California? Just say that new members of the latest criminal organization were found crossing the southern border. You want Americans to surrender their rights? Well, fearmonger and tell them that a special interest alien from a criminal organization is operating a cell in their neighborhood.

The Trump administration has already demonstrated to us that they are comfortable, under the guise of national security and protection, abusing every tool and system that we have. The administration has weaponized every well-intentioned tool that this body has authorized to make immigration more humane. What makes us think that this list will be any different?

I refuse to hand over greater authority and power to DHS given all the ways that they are running rampant through our States and cities, breaking down doors and kidnapping mothers, children, and law-abiding neighbors who have contributed to our communities for years.

They have proven to be completely untrustworthy and downright hostile to oversight, accountability, and compliance with the rule of law, so they can't be trusted with additional tools and mandates with which they can violate our rights.

Let me be very clear: For Trump and Noem, today's report is tomorrow's anti-immigrant, fascist tool.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote against this bill.