Floor Statements

Mr. President, the bill in the Chamber well right now does one simple thing: It gives U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stable, long-term funding so it can do the job the Congress assigned it to do--enforce the immigration laws on the books and protect the American people. It provides $100.36 billion for operations and support and provides $5 billion for procurement, construction, and improvements, all available through September 30, 2036.

This bill is necessary because Democrats are trying to do through appropriations what they could not do in public debate. They could not persuade the American people to support amnesty for millions of illegal aliens who poured into this country under the Biden Presidency. They could not stop President Trump from closing the border. So now they are trying to cripple interior enforcement by defunding and hamstringing

Mr. President, the horrific murder in Chicago last week has reminded this Nation that the battle to defend the American people, strengthen our Republic, and yield constitutional authority for the common good is not confined to the southern border. It is being fought and lost right here in our own cities, in the heartland, in the streets where our sons and daughters walk to class or watch the Northern Lights.

Sanctuary cities are not a polite exercise of State sovereignty or some virtue of federalism. Sanctuary cities are a declaration that illegal aliens' lives matter but American citizens' lives do not.

Sheridan Gorman was an 18-year-old college student at Loyola University in Chicago. Her family described her as a daughter, a sister, and the heart of their family. She was full of life, full of kindness, and full of love that she gave freely to everyone around her.

She made people feel seen. She made people feel valued. She was the kind of kid, the kind of daughter American families hope to raise; raised polite, hard-working, and the first in her family to go away to college, carrying the hopes of parents who still believe in the American dream.

Sheridan Gorman was not some statistic. She was somebody's everything. Whether it was her friends, her family, or someone she had just met, Sheridan had a way of leaving people better than she found them.

She was only 18 years old and just beginning her journey as a college freshman, embracing new experiences, building friendships, and living the life every parent hopes their child will get to live.

But last week she was murdered in cold blood by an illegal alien from Venezuela. She was killed, her life taken from her and a daughter stolen from her family by a criminal illegal alien who would not have been in this country but for the Democrats' open border and sanctuary city policies.

Border Patrol caught him in May of 2023. The Biden administration's open border policies let him go. That was the Democrats' first chance to prevent Sheridan's murder.

Democrat-run Chicago then had another chance to prevent Sheridan's murder. It arrested the same illegal alien Jose Medina-Medina for shoplifting. But Illinois and Chicago's sanctuary policies ordered the police to say nothing to ICE.

So instead of handing him over to Federal custody, they turned this monster loose on the streets of Chicago, the safety of American citizens be damned. And then last week, the same illegal alien shot Sheridan in the back as she went on a walk with her friends.

Pause for a moment and really sit with the facts of Sheridan Gorman's murder. That illegal alien was previously in law enforcement's custody twice, and both times radical Democrat policies released him back onto the streets to prey on the American citizenry.

It is uncomfortable for Democrats to confront the reality that their policies and radical ideology are causing preventable murders of American sons and daughters at the hands of illegal aliens. So they try to deflect.

A Democrat Chicago alderwoman had the audacity to say that Sheridan was

in the wrong place at the wrong time. What a disgusting lie.

Sheridan Gorman was in exactly the right place at the right time. She was exactly where an American college freshman should be: near the campus, with her friends, chasing the Northern Lights on a beautiful spring night.

No, the only person who was in the wrong place at the wrong time was the illegal alien murderer whose very presence in the country was the direct result of Democrat open border policies and sanctuary jurisdiction policies. He should have never been there. And if those policies had not existed, he would have been back in Venezuela years ago.

Rather than admit this sanctuary city policy caused the preventable murder, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker released a statement saying that ``Republicans need to stop politicizing heinous tragedies.'' What an ugly, revealing statement.

We are not politicizing the tragedy. We are exposing the truth. Sanctuary policies are getting American citizens killed. I know it; the American people know it; and deep down the Democrats know it too.

The truth is, sanctuary cities force us to confront a test, the most fundamental test of any government: Does it still understand its first and only real obligation is to protect its own citizens?

The duty is older than the Republic, older than modern politics itself. It is the reason government exists. Yet through these policies, Democrats made a deliberate choice: They sided with Jose Medina-Medina, a criminal illegal alien, over Sheridan Gorman, an American citizen and a college freshman.

They have chosen an open border's ideology over the American Nation. At root, the scourge of sanctuary cities forces us to answer the same question as the SAVE America Act: Who or what comes first?

Is it the American people, American sons and daughters, or is it illegal aliens and this radical open borders ideology? Or, dare I say, a theology? Not in theory, not in slogans, but in practice--when the handcuffs go on, when the phone call to federal law enforcement is made or not made, when lives hang in the balance.

If the answer is not the American citizen, if the answer is not Sheridan Gorman or Laken Riley or Stephanie Minter or Katie Abraham, then we are no longer arguing about immigration policy. We are confronting something far more fundamental: whether our government still understands the basic purpose for which it exists. The American people know the answer.

Democrats' conduct--their conduct betrays their answer. Democrats value illegal aliens more than Americans. This is a sick ideology.

I actually can't believe--in a State where I come from, Harry Truman would be rolling in his grave. John F. Kennedy would be rolling in his grave.

This idea, this toxic empathy, this suicidal empathy to placate the left is driving this debate we are having right now where they don't want to fund Federal law enforcement. They would rather a sanctuary jurisdiction not tell ICE that a murderer or a rapist is being released from prison to be deported. They don't want to do that. They hold onto this altar of this crazy ideology.

So all this discussion we are having about this negotiation, I have been skeptical from the beginning. I litigated with Democrats on title 42 and ``Remain in Mexico.'' Deep down in the DNA now is something that has been lost. I don't understand it. Democrats admitted as much last night in an interview.

By failing to give illegal aliens a pathway to citizenship, this Democrat noted that ``we failed to deliver for the people we care about the most, undocumented migrants.''

The people Democrats care about most are not you or your family. Instead, it is Jose Medina-Medina and the 15 million other illegal immigrants that the Biden administration let into this country.

Once you understand this reality--that this is the driving, operating principle of the modern Democrat Party, this is not an outlier--the other actions are predictable, including this negotiation, this supposed negotiation that is happening, that is supposedly taking place.

Once you see this hierarchy of needs and wants and preferences, everything makes sense. Democrats right now value illegal aliens more than traveling Americans. That is why they have defunded DHS and TSA.

They value illegal aliens more than the American families hit by a disaster. That is why they are defunding DHS and FEMA.

They value illegal aliens more than Sheridan Gorman, Laken Riley, Stephanie Minter, or Katie Abraham. That is why they have built sanctuary cities in Chicago, in New Orleans, in Los Angeles, in Minneapolis.

As a Senator from Missouri, where we still believe the first job of government is to keep Missouri families safe, I say this plainly: Prioritizing illegal aliens to American citizens is unacceptable, and it is downright un-American.

The alternative, putting Americans first, which used to be something maybe we could agree on, is not complicated and is consistent with both the Constitution and common sense. Enforce Federal immigration laws. These laws were passed by Republicans and Democrats alike, enforced by Republican and Democrat Presidents alike until recently.

So enforce the laws. Deport the illegal aliens. Prioritize the safety of American citizens over ideology and illegal aliens because at the end of the day, this is not about ideology or politics. It is about whether or not we remain a country in which the government fulfills its most basic and fundamental obligation, a country where the law is enforced, a country where the responsibilities of governing for the common good is taken seriously, a country where the safety of its people is not treated as negotiable.

If we cannot agree to affirm all those principles, then we are drifting, slowly but unmistakably, away from the principles that sustain a free and ordered society. And that is a drift we cannot afford to ignore any longer.

I want to close by reading part of a statement from the Gorman family:

We will not allow this to be dismissed as wrong place,

wrong time. This was not random misfortune. This was a

violent and preventable act. We are gravely disappointed by

the policy and failures that allowed this individual to

remain in a position to commit this crime. When systems fail,

whether through release decisions, lack of coordination, or

unwillingness to act, the consequences are not abstract. They

are real. And in our case, they are permanent.

This case must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of both State and Federal law. There can be no gaps, no shortcuts, and no second chances that put others at risk. Accountability must be complete.

To the Gorman family: I am so sorry for your loss. As a dad who has my first daughter headed off to college next fall, I cannot imagine the grief and the pain that you feel when you send your little girl off to college and she is murdered in cold blood by somebody who should have never been here and there were two opportunities to get him the hell out of here.

I pray for you. I pray for Sheridan and all those who loved her.

I pray for every parent who now lives with the fear that the next knock on the door will be one that destroys their world.

We will not let this be memory-holed as ``wrong place, wrong time.'' This was a violent, preventable act, enabled by radical policies that put illegal aliens ahead of American citizens.

This case must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of State and Federal laws. Accountability must be complete, and it will be. It is time--long past time--for this Senate to answer the question the American people have already answered: Whose country is this?

Enforce the laws. Deport the illegal aliens. End sanctuary cities once and for all. We must reclaim the foundational promise of this Republic that a nation of the people and by the people must be for the people. The American Government is for the American people.

The American people have made their choice clear. American citizens come first. That is the fight I came to Washington to wage, and with the help of the American people, that is the fight we are going to win.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I am going to address two issues. The first is the funding of DHS, and the second will be on the SAVE America Act. I actually agree with the Senator from Hawaii. I don't think we are close, and here is why.

The Democrats have made it very clear they are hell-bent on defunding ICE. They have demonized these husbands, wives, cousins, sisters, brothers, to the point where they have painted themselves into a corner where there is nothing that they will accept, short of eliminating immigration enforcement in this country.

The White House has acted in good faith with the Democrats on this, with some reasonable measures, like more training, body cams, you know, things like that. But here is what they really want. What they really want is--they don't want people deported.

They don't actually believe in the sovereignty of the United States of America. They don't think that as a country we should decide who is here and who has to go. It is a fundamental disagreement that didn't exist before. If you listen to a Bill Clinton speech from not that long ago, he talked about strong borders and deporting people.

Barack Obama deported millions of people. What they want is a dynamic. And if you listen closely, the reason why they want masked agents--or ICE agents not to wear masks is they want them identified. They want the ICE agents' families to be terrorized. They want the facial recognition software that exists on Facebook and others, when people are doxed, to be very clear and usable so that nobody wants to join ICE anymore.

This is the exact same phenomena that happened with the ``defund the police'' movement. What happened was because the police officers were demonized by the left, people retired early. People stopped joining police departments. Recruitment dived. That is what they want with ICE.

They want to muck up the process with this whole idea of judicial warrants, knowing full well that warrants currently exist right now. There is a full disposition for deportation through the process that both Republicans and Democrats have agreed to over the years, including Republican and Democrat Presidents. That is not good enough because they want to make it harder to deport people.

So this fundamental question about whether or not we are going to get funding for DHS is going to be very hard to solve when the Democrats on the other side don't actually want to solve the problem.

And Chuck Schumer, he wants the chaos. I have talked to rank-and-file Democrats who have no idea about the reasonable nature of what the White House has offered because the minority leader doesn't want them to know because this is what he wants.

He wants the chaos. He wants people stranded on spring break at airports because he creates a bigger problem and he thinks that all goes back to Trump. This is not like rocket science, but it is--it is dirty.

And what the Republicans have said is: The White House is dealing in good faith. These people deserve to be paid. We shouldn't be holding all these people hostage, these TSA agents who are now going to miss their third paycheck here pretty soon. Listen, I fly back and forth every week. People can't afford that. Real people can't do that.

So this is where we are at. I think they want to create a dynamic like they did with the ``defund the police'' movement that they were so supportive of a decade ago with the defund ICE movement so that they can't do their jobs and their jobs become so difficult and their families are terrorized that nobody wants to be an ICE agent anymore.

And then what do you have? You have amnesty for the 15 million people who are here illegally, de facto amnesty because they are not going to be deported. That is the truth.

Now, they are not going to say it on the Senate floor, but that is really what is going on. And so as far as I am concerned, we are not going to do anything that kneecaps ICE's ability to do their jobs. The American people--this was on the ballot--they support deportations. They don't think that rapists and murderers who are here in this country illegally are more important than American wives and daughters.

So that is the dynamic.

Mr. President, I rise today to honor the remarkable life and legacy of the late Alverta G. Harvey Hargis. Beginning her life in 1908, she had the opportunity to come of age during the closing days of the American pioneer era. Born in a covered wagon in Nebraska and spending the first few years of her life growing up in the type of iconic sod house that defined that era of our Nation's history, the challenges of growing up on the frontier provided her with valuable life lessons and helped equip her with a resilience that would guide her and her family through the hardships of the 20th century.

During the Second World War, Mrs. Hargis played a key role in protecting America's freedom by serving at defense plants in Detroit, MI, ensuring that our selfless servicemen were equipped to defend our great republic and liberate our brothers and sisters in Europe. In 2020, she was among the great American women awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for supporting our nation as Rosie the Riveters by Congress and President Trump. At this year's Cherry Blossom Festival, Representative Alford will be posthumously presenting her with this honor. After the war, her extraordinary talent for quilting and baking became so iconic in southwest Missouri that, to this day, the Grand Champion Apple Pie Prize at the annual Apple Festival in Seymour, MO, is named in her honor, and each year, a fundraiser honoring her legacy is held during the Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival.

Throughout her life, Mrs. Hargis remained a committed woman of God and devoted herself to her family, raising 6 children and becoming the proud grandmother to over 80 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. As the United States reaches its 250th anniversary, Mrs. Alverta Hargis' remarkable life serves as a perfect example of the spirit of committed service, sacrifice, and faith that have made our country great. I am proud to join her family and Representative Alford in recognizing her remarkable life and legacy and am happy that she called the Show-Me State home.

Mr. President, I rise today to honor the lifesaving work of Deanna Chatman, who serves as a postal carrier in St. Louis. Following the late November snow in 2025, the U.S. Postal Service determined that St. Louis carriers did not have to drive if road conditions were unsafe. Despite this, Ms. Chatman felt drawn to go to work as normal. Partway through her shift, Ms. Chatman encountered a senior citizen who had fallen and was trapped outside in the snow for 3 hours. Upon discovering the urgency of her situation, Ms. Chatman quickly called 911 and waited with the lady until first responders arrived, then completed the remainder of her delivery route as normal. Thanks to Ms. Chatman's choice to trust her instincts and act with purpose, the senior citizen was rescued and was released from the hospital in just a few days, and her family credits Deanna for her survival.

Ms. Deanna Chatman is truly a Champion of Missouri. She is a perfect example of what a civil servant can and should be, going above and beyond to help others. While she delivered mail on her usual route, she also delivered hope to a Missouri family. I am sincerely grateful for her dedication, not only to her work, but her extraordinary devotion to our fellow Missourians.

Mr. President, I rise today to recognize Ms. Darci Curtis, a heroic pharmacy technician with the 509th Medical Group. After leaving work one day in July of 2025, Ms. Curtis witnessed a hit-and-run auto accident resulting in one of the vehicles going airborne and quickly pulled over to check on those in the damaged car. She called for an ambulance, but before first responders arrived, the vehicle's engine began smoking and threatened to catch fire. Suspecting a gas leak due to previous experience, Darci and one of her coworkers helped the injured passenger escape from the damaged car and communicated with the passenger's family until the paramedics arrived. Thanks to her quick thinking and ability to act with purpose, the victim was able to make it to the hospital and survive a terrible accident.

Ms. Darci Curtis is truly a Champion of Missouri, as much for her heroic actions last July as for her dedicated service to the troops and military families at Whiteman Air Force Base. Her devotion to protecting our fellow Missourians is nothing short of remarkable. She truly embodies the spirit of service that makes our nation truly special.

Mr. President, I rise today to recognize the work of Kurt Jordan, who has found a unique way to volunteer his time and serve the great State of Missouri. After retiring as vice president of sales for Sherwin-Williams, Mr. Jordan and his father learned of the dilapidated conditions at Greenwick Cemetery north of St. Joseph and felt called to act. Over the last 7 years, Mr. Jordan has restored hundreds of gravestones across the Show-Me State, contributing both his personal time and money to restore multiple rundown cemeteries, with projects ranging from cleaning and restoring fractured headstones to developing a modern QR code system to help interested visitors learn more about

those buried at Greenwick Cemetery free of charge.

Outside of the graveyard, Kurt has proven himself to be an outstanding community leader, helping educate others on historic preservation, volunteering his experience with multiple boards over the years, including the Missouri Board of Preservation and Elmwood Cemetery Society. He currently serves on the Missouri Western State University Board of Directors.

Mr. Jordan has truly found a unique way to serve families in our great State and help preserve the legacies of our ancestors, and his dedication is truly inspiring. I am deeply grateful for his meaningful work and am happy to recognize him as a Champion of Missouri.

Mr. President, I rise today to commend the selfless work of Aniston Kennedy of Excelsior Springs, MO. Over the last few years, Ms. Kennedy has shown herself to be one of the Show-Me State's animal rescue champions. Since 2023, her volunteer efforts have helped spay and neuter over 40 animals and helped at least 35 find their forever homes. Her passion for helping animals goes beyond common pets, as she has helped rehome and rehabilitate creatures as diverse as bearded dragons and even roosters.

Her impact goes beyond the animals she directly cares for. Her work to humanely manage stray animal colonies has already inspired additional community efforts across Excelsior Springs and has the potential to be modeled across the State as a humane way to effectively manage the State's animal populations. I wish Ms. Kennedy the best as she pursues her career in animal welfare. Her commitment to caring for our furry and feathered friends is nothing short of remarkable, and she has more than proven herself to be a Champion of Missouri.

Mr. President, I rise today to recognize SrA Jada McMillan, an outstanding medic with the 509th Medical Group at Whiteman Air Force Base. After leaving work one day in July of 2025, Senior Airman McMillan witnessed a hit-and-run auto accident resulting in one of the vehicles becoming airborne. After quickly pulling over to check on the passengers alongside one of her coworkers, Jada drew upon her experience in the medical field to remain calm and help the injured passenger escape from the soon-burning vehicle, choosing to stay with the passenger until first responders could arrive. Thanks to her ability to remain calm and focused, the victim survived and was able to receive the necessary medical care.

SrA Jada McMillan has truly proven herself a Champion of Missouri, both in her dedicated service to our Nation in the U.S. Air Force and for her decisive action last July. Her outstanding devotion to protecting others is truly remarkable, and she has more than shown that she embodies the spirit of service that makes our Nation truly special. I am proud to represent such an outstanding individual in the U.S. Senate and wish her all the best as she continues serving in our Armed Forces.

Mr. President, I rise today to commemorate the remarkable career of Deputy Mike Rankin. For over 50 years, Deputy Rankin has gone above and beyond in serving the people of Missouri as a member of the Buchanan County Sheriff's Office. As a volunteer and commander in the reserve division, he has more than proven his dedication to protecting our fellow Missourians over his impressive career and continues to serve his community admirably. His selfless choice to dedicate countless hours shielding others from danger is nothing short of remarkable and exemplifies the very best of Missouri law enforcement.

Deputy Mike Rankin's dedication is truly inspiring and demonstrates an unparalleled and enduring commitment to the spirit of service. I am sincerely grateful for his decades of volunteering as a first responder and am proud to recognize him today as a Champion of Missouri.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I would also--before I talk about the SAVE Act, I just want to point out how the Democrats at this point, time and time again, have refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security at a time where we have conflict, at a time where we have seen terrorist attacks on the homeland--whether it is in Austin, Old Dominion, in Michigan--through the disastrous immigration policy overseen by the Biden administration with the Democrats where 15 million people came in here illegally, many of which we have no idea who they are. Most of them, we have no idea who they are. We do know that there are tens of thousands of murderers, hundreds of thousands of violent criminals.

And the Democrats hate ICE and want to defund ICE so much they are willing to endanger the lives of the American people for this showboating and grandstanding.

So anything they do out here to act like--it is just covering their rear ends because they know they are the ones responsible for defunding the Department of Homeland Security--that means TSA agents, that means the travel of the American people, that means the Coast Guard, that means the Secret Service, that means investigating people who are trafficking children here.

This is a wildly bizarre, out-of-step ideology at this point where open borders is now in their DNA, and their refusal to want to get rid of people who shouldn't be here in the first place and prioritizing people who are here illegally over American citizens is nuts.

Mr. President, there are moments when the Senate is asked whether it will merely manage decline or whether it will still govern. This is one of those moments.

What is before us today is a test, a test of whether the Senate still understands what it is for, a test of whether article I of the Constitution still means what it says, that Congress possesses the power to write the rules of the road, a test of whether this body still exists to defend the American people, strengthen the Republic, and use constitutional authority for the common good.

That is why I rise in support of my substitute amendment to the SAVE America Act, and it comes before us at a fitting hour in our Nation's life. America is approaching her 250th birthday. We were taught in schools to think of the American founding as though it were unimaginably far away, sealed off behind glass, but 250 years is smaller than it seems.

President John Tyler was born during the First Congress in 1790. He was born in the very infancy of this Republic. President Tyler's last living grandson died only last year. That is how near the founding it still is and how recent this great experiment in self-government remains. And if the founding is that near, then our duty is that much clearer.

We are not the curators of a dead tradition. We are the stewards of a living Republic. Our Republic was founded on a daring claim: that free people could govern itself--not that a free people could drift forever; not that a free people could live off inherited greatness while its leaders refuse every hard question; not that a free people could dissolve every boundary, mock every limit, and still expect to remain free. No. The American founding rested on a harder truth: Liberty is fragile, and so it requires structure. Man has fallen, and so self- government requires virtue. A republic requires citizens, truth, and the courage to defend both. That is why this bill matters.

Some will say that this bill and all of its titles don't belong together; that five-pronged, three-titled amendment is just a package or a wish list or a collection of unrelated priorities. But that only proves they do not understand what time it is, and they don't understand what our Republic is.

The five prongs and three titles of this amendment are united by one central question: Will American law still defend the basic conditions of self-government?

Title I, Save American Voter, says the franchise belongs to its citizens and voting should be secure.

Title II, Save American Sports, says that women's sports exist for women and girls, acknowledging biological reality over a legal fiction imposed by elite ideology.

Title III, Save American Children, says that children should be protected from irreversible harm, not handed over to the appetites, fashions, and confusions of the age.

Citizenship, reality, responsibility--those are the basic truths a nation must defend if it intends to remain a nation.

Let me begin with title I. A republic has the right to distinguish citizens from noncitizens. That should not be controversial. That should not even be difficult. The vote is not a global entitlement. The vote is not a participation trophy for anyone who happens to cross our borders. It is one of the central privileges and duties of political membership. If citizenship means anything, it must mean something here first. That is why requiring proof of citizenship to vote in Federal elections is foundational. It is a minimum requirement. It is so common sense in a self-governing nation because a people who cannot say who belongs to the polity cannot remain a polity at all.

The same is true for voter identification. We are told endlessly that asking a voter to identify himself before casting a ballot is somehow oppressive, somehow unreasonable, somehow outside the bounds of democratic decency. The American people know better. That is why over 80 percent of American voters support voter ID.

Identity verification is ordinary in every serious sphere of life. We require it for small things, for lesser things, for trivial things. There is nothing wrong with requiring lawful voters to identify themselves before participating in the elections of those who will govern the United States of America. Honest elections require lawful voters, lawful ballots, and lawful verification.

And then there is the question of mail voting. For too long, this country has been told to accept a system of mass mail-in voting as though it were the settled inheritance of the American Republic. It is not. In its current form, mass mail-in voting is a modern phenomenon, and in many places it is a direct holdover from the COVID era. COVID is over. The emergency has passed. The extraordinary accommodations of that period should not become the permanent architecture of American elections.

For most of our history, the presumption was simple: If you could vote in person, you voted in person. You appeared before lawful election officials. Your identity could be verified. Your ballot could be secured. The chain of custody could be protected. The people could trust what they were seeing. That is not cruelty. That is not oppression. That is what republican government looks like.

Now, of course, there are those who are unable to vote in person, and they should be helped. Military voters should be helped. Individuals with disabilities should be helped. Those who are sick should be helped. Caregivers with real burdens should be helped. Those with genuine, qualifying hardships should be helped. But accommodation should remain the exception, not the organizing principle of the whole system because voting is not a consumer transaction.

The highest values in election administrations should be on legitimacy, public confidence, and trust. Not so long ago, even Democrats shared these values. The Carter-Baker Commission, formed by former Democrat President Jimmy Carter and former Republican Secretary of State James Baker III, made many of the recommendations that my amendment promotes: voter ID, proof of citizenship, and limiting mail- in balloting. Democrat Senators may not support these provisions, but their voters do. Seventy-one percent of self-identified Democrats support voter ID.

A free people should want its elections to be visible, accountable, and resistant to bad actors. That is what title I is trying to restore--not the denial of lawful voting but the integrity of lawful voting; not confusion but confidence; not looseness but legitimacy.

I know this issue because I have experienced these fights myself. When I served as Missouri's attorney general, I fought in court and defended our State's election integrity laws against a coordinated assault from the left in 2020. The left's dark money-funded election superlawyers did not merely challenge one rule here or there; they challenged the very idea that we can get serious rules to protect the ballot, deter fraud, preserve order, and sustain public confidence in the vote. They came for the safeguards that made elections credible. They came for the principle that absentee and mail voting must be governed by rules. They came for the simple proposition that the people are entitled not only to cast a ballot but to trust the system by which ballots are cast, handled, counted, and certified.

And Missouri won. We defended the truth that election law is the framework by which free people govern itself. Election law isn't the arcane inconvenience to be brushed aside whenever the left sees a tactical advantage. We defended the proposition that deadlines matter because finality matters. We defended ballot security because legitimacy matters. We defended verification requirements because public trust matters. We defended the authority of the people acting through their laws to insist that elections be honest, orderly, and worthy of confidence. And Missouri won.

That fight has taught me something I have never forgotten: The fight over election integrity is about more than mechanics or procedure; rather, it is about whether we still have the moral confidence to defend the elementary conditions of self-government--because once every safeguard is treated as suspect, once every verification measure is denounced as oppression, once every effort to secure the ballot is caricatured as hostility to democracy, what is really under attack is the public's faith that elections are fair, lawful, and real.

So when I speak today about voter ID, proof of citizenship, and limits on mass mail voting, I do so from experience. I have fought these battles before. I have seen the pressure campaign to dissolve the rules that protect the vote. I have seen how quickly common sense is denounced when it stands in the way of ideological ambition. I have seen when the public officials are willing to stand firm and that, when you do that, you can win.

That is what title I and Saving American Voters is all about. It is not extreme. It is not novel. It is the restoration of an old and necessary principle that, in a republic, the vote must be lawful, secure, and worthy of confidence of the American people.

Now, let me turn to title II. If the law cannot defend women from men acting as women, it cannot defend reality. Women's sports exist because men and women are not the same. That is biological reality. It is moral reality. It is the plain reality on which fair competition depends. And when the law refuses to recognize that reality, the category of women's sports becomes fraudulent.

Girls are told to surrender fairness. They are told to surrender privacy. They are told to surrender safety. They are told to surrender recognition. And they are told to do all of this so the ruling class can flatter itself for its own moral sophistication. The State has no right to impose that sacrifice.

I have two daughters. They both love sports. But this is more than just about sports; it is about whether the law is still going to reflect reality or whether it will be conscripted into enforcing a falsehood. It is about whether a civilization still possesses enough moral competence to say: What is the truth? And that is not cruelty. It is about whether we still believe that girls deserve a realm of fair competition that is actually their own. A serious republic does not ask girls to bear the cost of elite confusion. A serious republic tells the truth about the world and builds laws on that truth. That is what title II does.

Now, let me turn to title III. A decent nation protects children. Children are not ideological property. Children are not experimental material. Children are not raw material for the ambitions of activists, for the cowardice of institutions, or for the self-indulgence of adults who have forgotten the law exists first to defend those who need protection.

There are lines that a humane society does not cross. Irreversible medical interventions on minors for ideological ends are one of those lines. A child in distress needs guidance, protection, patience, love, stability, truth. A child in distress does not need a civilization so morally exhausted that it answers confusion with scalpels, sterilization, and

permanent medicalization. The burden of uncertainty should favor preserving the child, not fundamentally remaking the child.

Too often, our ruling class has preferred euphemism to honesty here. We are told this is compassion. We are told this is care. We are told that the enlightened position is to ratify distress with irreducible harm.

It is not compassion to mutilate what cannot be restored. It is not compassion to medicalize what may pass. It is not compassion to turn children into lifelong patients before they are old enough to understand what is being taken from them, permanently. That is not mercy; it is cruelty masked in liberation.

A republic worthy of the name protects children from adult passions, from ideological capture, and from the fashionable madness of the age. That is what title II is trying to do.

And that is why these three titles belong together--because this amendment is more than a list of 80-20 issues that the American people are demanding. The SAVE America Act is the defense of the elementary truths on which republican life--small ``r''--still depends: America belongs to its citizens. Men and women are real. Children should be protected from permanent harm. If a nation will not defend these truths, it will not defend truth for very long. If a nation will not defend these boundaries, it will not keep any boundary for long.

And that brings me to this Chamber itself. Americans still love ``Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'' for a reason. They love it because they still want to believe something about this institution. They want to believe that the Senate, a uniquely American invention, can be used for the common good. They still want to believe that conviction can defeat cynicism. They want to believe that a man can come here and fight for his country rather than merely manage its decline.

Well, here is our chance to prove that hope is not foolish. The Senate is not a museum. It is not a Visiting Angels retirement village for proceduralism. It is not here merely to confirm nominees, pass omnibuses, and fund the legislative achievements of long dead men while the living Nation loses confidence in its own government.

The U.S. Senate is here to legislate in defense of the American people. The Senate is here to draw lines. The Senate is here to make judgments. The Senate is here to govern.

So the question for this Chamber is really simple: Are we here to govern or merely preside? Are we here to act for the people or simply explain why action is impossible? Are we here to use power rightly or merely to congratulate ourselves for the restraint while the country pays the price?

Because the stakes here are plain. We see distrust in elections. We see the collapse of moral clarity. We are seeing girls told to accept injustices as progress. We are seeing children offered up to the altar of extreme ideology. We are seeing a governing class that refuses to draw any line into the line that has already been erased.

And republics don't usually fall in one dramatic stroke. They weaken when truth is no longer defended. They weaken when citizenship is diluted. They weaken when institutions lose the will to govern. They weaken when elites ask ordinary people to live under conditions they themselves know are disordered. They weaken when men without chests hold positions requiring virtue and enterprise.

That is what this debate is really about. It is about whether the country still defends first principles. It is about whether the Senate understands what time it is. It is about whether constitutional power can still be used for the common good.

And as America approaches her 250th birthday, that question becomes even more urgent. A republic approaching its quarter millennium should not be content merely to remember greatness. It should show that it still knows how to govern itself. It should show that it still has the strength to defend citizenship. It should show that it still has the courage to defend women. It should show that it still has the decency to defend children.

Article I is supposed to be the branch of action. This body exists to do more than simply fund legislative achievements of long-dead men. The legislative power exists to make judgments, draw lines, and defend our country. The Senate should prove that it still understands that duty.

So pass this bill to restore integrity to Federal elections. Pass this bill to defend women and girls. Pass this bill to protect kids. Pass this bill to show the American people that we can still act in the defense of the American people. Pass this bill because these are commonsense reforms. Pass this bill because Americans are tired of being told that their most basic moral instincts are somehow beyond the pale. Pass this bill because a nation serious about the future doesn't apologize for governing itself. Pass this bill because America 250 should be more than some commemoration. It should be a renewal.

The age of excuses should end. The era of drift should end. The Senate should act, and the SAVE America Act should pass.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the next 60 minutes be under control of the Democratic leader or his designee, followed by the next 60 minutes by the Republican leader or his designee, and, finally, the next 60 minutes be the Democratic leader or his designee, and following that, the majority leader or his designee be recognized.

Mr. President, I ask for unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 156, H.R. 4553; I ask that the substitute amendment, No. 4353, be considered and agreed to; the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, this is the DHS bill that would fund all the things that are in the DHS bill that the Democrats negotiated until they pulled the rug out from underneath that negotiation to politically grandstand on the Senate floor now for nearly a month.

The truth of the matter is that--I want to make the point for those who care about the way the Senate operates. First of all, we didn't have any appropriations bills the first 2 years. The majority party has now put appropriations bills on. There have been 11 out of 12.

I was told that policy debates are not to enter the discussion on appropriations bills because things like this can happen.

To my Democrat colleagues: If you have a bill that you want to defund ICE with, put it on the floor. I guarantee it will get voted down because it is an extremely unpopular position.

We are not going to let you get to that result by way of holding everyone else hostage.

If you want to support all the Agencies in this negotiated bill, you have a way to do it. But I think we really know what this is about. What this is really about is the Democrats lost an election where the issue of border enforcement and deportations were on the table, front and center in front of the voters, and the voters supported it. Recent polling still shows that.

But to satisfy their radicalized base--which are the same people, these leftist NGOs that conjure and foment discontent, blow whistles, try to create confrontations with ICE agents--won't let them do it, and they are kind of stuck.

So the only thing they have left now is the same playbook they ran a couple of months ago by shutting down the government, but this time they are shutting down DHS.

And to make that clear, Joe Biden and the Democrats let 15 million people in here illegally, tens of thousands of murderers, hundreds of thousands of violent criminals, and now that same party wants to defund the Agency that is charged with deporting these monsters.

So we have a choice. I choose to support law enforcement. I am not going to go along with the idea that we are going to give the Democrats the ability to kneecap ICE so they can get amnesty by lack of enforcement.

And with that, Mr. President, I renew my motion.

If he has already objected, the objection has been heard.

Mr. President, I object.

My colleague from Connecticut just talked about this minutes ago. Minutes ago, the very same Senator objected to Coast Guard funding. So here we are again with political gamesmanship and grandstanding for some clip to show that you actually want to fund the Coast Guard. Meanwhile, you just voted against the Coast Guard.

The Democrats do not want to fund the Coast Guard because they are so hell-bent on defunding ICE.

And the term ``out of control'' was used. Do you know what is out of control? The language being used on this floor to describe Federal law enforcement--Nazis, the Gestapo. This is very dangerous. This is very dangerous.

And I will tell you that I have great appreciation for the men and women who go into very dangerous situations to deport criminals who want to rape and murder our fellow citizens. I appreciate them.

So five reasons why I cannot go along with this scam: Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray, Kayla Hamilton, Dacara Thompson, and Hallie Helgeson--all Americans--all murdered by illegal aliens released by Democrats, instead of being deported.

So what else is out of control other than the Democrats' language? These leftist activist organizations that are creating the chaos in the streets.

There are nine sanctuary jurisdictions in this country that, actually, probably are significant. In those nine sanctuary jurisdictions, there is a 590-percent increase for anti-ICE attacks.

They are creating conditions with the hope that they get some viral moment. This is dangerous. This is out of control.

One more thing that is out of control: sanctuary jurisdictions at large.

And for the friends watching at home, what is a sanctuary jurisdiction that the Democrats are so proud of? They are local jurisdictions that will not tell Federal law enforcement when an illegal alien rapist or murderer is being released from prison.

It happened--by the way, the new Virginia Governor just pledged that she won't do it.

The monster Abdul Jalloh, from Sierra Leone, with 30 priors, who stabbed to death a fellow citizen of ours--she has pledged to not let ICE know when that monster is released from prison.

That is who they are. That is what we are fighting against, and we are not going to allow them to kneecap our Federal law enforcement from getting these monsters out of our country.

They just voted against this. They just voted against the Coast Guard. They just voted against the Secret Service. They just voted against TSA.

They want to undermine law enforcement and give blanket amnesty to 15 million people here illegally. That is the truth.

And with that, Mr. President, I object.

Mr. President.

May I inquire?

I just want to point out that we heard from the Appropriations chairman that nobody has come out here and acknowledged anything that happened. Let me point out something that the Democrats have failed to acknowledge in all this. This toxic empathy that they have--that really what it means is they don't want our immigration laws enforced.

And let me be clear: We are going to do nothing--nothing--that kneecaps ICE's ability to enforce our immigration laws, because there were no Democrats out here that wept or pointed out that Jocelyn Nungaray, the 12-year-old girl, was kidnapped, raped, and murdered by two illegal aliens in 2024. There were no Democrats that expressed any compassion out here on the floor about Rachel Morin, an American mother who was ambushed, raped, and murdered by an illegal alien while she was on a hiking trial in Maryland. There was nobody out here talking about Laken Riley.

Now, what we have heard from the new Democrat Governor in Virginia is that they are going to be a sanctuary jurisdiction, and they are not going to work with ICE. They are not going to--actually, on the guy who stabbed a woman to death at a bus stop, they are not going to let ICE know when that person is released from prison or jail.

That is what this debate is about. So let me just sort of pull the veil back about what this really is. Joe Biden let 15 million people in here illegally. This question about deporting illegal immigrants was on the ballot. President Trump was not bashful about it. It was on the ballot, and the American people supported the idea that we were going to deport people--we were going to use our Federal law enforcement to deport people.

They don't like that, and so the way that they get at mass amnesty now is not passing a law, because they can't do that. It is by not enforcing our immigration laws.

So their proposals are not about reform. Their proposals are making it impossible for ICE to do their jobs, and we are not doing that. So let me just dispel you of any notion that our side is going to allow you to continue the chaos that has happened inside our country because you all let 15 million people in here illegally. It is not going to happen.

So the question I have for you, as we have this inquiry, is: It is unprecedented, the idea that we are having policy debates--policy debates--in appropriations bills.

You have done an incredible job, Leader, of saying: We are going to get back to regular order. We have done 11 out of 12 appropriations bills.

And now because the Democrats found their ``controversy of the week,'' they have moved on to other things. So I am a little surprised they are still on this. But now they want to start pulling things out of appropriation bills--pulling things out. And it is just untenable. It is untenable because--let me promise that you would never do this. If you were in charge right now, you would never allow us to isolate anything.

You didn't even have appropriations bills on the floor. Chuck Schumer never let a single appropriations bill on the floor my first 2 years here.

So now, we are actually working through the process.

So the proposals that we have heard from the Democrats, whether it is on judicial warrants or the other issues--they know exactly what that means. It means they want to limit ICE's ability to do their jobs. We are not doing that.

So you can cry about it. You can whine about it. You lost an election over it. The White House has dealt with you in good faith. You want to prolong this until you get another incident, while your activists are on the streets confronting ICE agents in sanctuary jurisdictions, hoping they get some viral moment.

We are done with that, OK? We are done with it. Your NGO networks, I know they are still active. They are still doing their thing. But the truth is, all of the incidents that you can really count on, that you can point to that any confrontation happened with ICE agents are in sanctuary jurisdictions where they don't respond to 911 calls for ICE agents, and they don't cooperate with ICE agents.

It is very easy for an ICE agent to show up at a penitentiary or a jail or prison and get somebody and deport them. What is harder to do is when they show up in a community and they have to go get somebody out of a house with more people, and they know that is exactly the dynamic.

So I guess the question is, Have you ever seen anything like this-- the lack of good faith? This is really about--and I just want to be clear. This isn't about some reform. This is their final stand in opposition to the will of the American people who voted for deportations.

So I just think that this is ridiculous--and, by the way, especially ridiculous coming from the Appropriations chairwoman, when we finally have regular order on this floor, and we finally are doing actual appropriations bills, and they want to hold it up.

So just beware that when the shoe is on the other foot, we know the tactics. We know the tactics.

Mr. President, I want to set the stage for where we are at this moment, what just happened. Republicans voted to move forward on a bipartisan appropriations bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which includes, among other things, ICE funding, TSA funding, FEMA funding, and the Democrats voted no.

Now, that is not all. Right about now, there is a bus leaving. There is a bus leaving the Capitol grounds and headed for an airport. Democrats are on that bus who just voted to defund the paycheck of the TSA agent making $40,000 a year, to hop on a plane, funded by your tax dollars, to go to Munich, to go to Europe, and badmouth American foreign policy. They will be sipping wine with the global elites, telling them: Don't listen to President Trump. That is not who we are.

I have got news for you: The American people have weighed in, and they did in November of 2024, and this new direction of foreign policy is the ascendant view.

But outside of the foreign policy debate, just how offensive is it that they voted to defund DHS and are going to fly transatlantic on the taxpayer dime and trash talk America.

That won't get reported probably many places. The corrupt media covers for the Democrats day in and day out around here. That is one of the things I have learned in my 3 years in the Senate. The hypocrisy is insane. That is where they are headed.

In a broader sense, where are we? For my Republican colleagues, I hope you appreciate what this is, this moment, because this isn't some isolated incident. This is a 10-year struggle for commonsense Americans who have pushed back against a radical open borders policy that has been pushed by the Democrats.

President Trump won in 2016 on a few issues, but the electrical cord that began when he came down the escalator, that continues to this day, is taking on illegal immigration and the forgotten men and women of this country whose jobs were initially displaced when the failed policies of the politicians of this town sent their jobs overseas--the towns that I grew up in--and then when they were looking for new jobs, their wages were suppressed, and their jobs went to illegal immigrants. The Democrats have never understood that. They have never understood that Americans were upset about that.

Then for the 4 years previous to this, Joe Biden's term, Joe Biden let in 15 million--million--people. One million is a lot of people. Five million is a lot of people. Fifteen million people came into this country illegally. We don't know who most of them are. We don't even know where they are. What we do know is that literally tens of thousands of them are murderers; hundreds of thousands of them are violent criminals.

The left has tried to destroy this country through this open borders policy because we are all citizens of the world. Borders are just arbitrary lines on a map. That is where the modern Democrat Party is. They don't actually believe that America, as a sovereign country, should be able to tell people who can come and who has to leave.

So that is what this whole thing is about. It isn't about Minnesota or some recent event; this is about the Democrats failing to accept the verdict from the American people--that they sent President Trump back into the Oval Office to fix mass migration, to take on mass migration with mass deportations.

Regardless of the antics that happened here today on their ``no'' vote and flying with the globalists in Europe, it will not change that agenda. It is happening whether you like it or not.

Thank God we front-loaded in the Working Families Tax Cut money for deportations and tens of billions for detention centers. Two hundred thousand Americans have applied to be ICE agents because they love this great country, and they don't want it destroyed.

This is another hissy fit along the way by the Democrats who refuse to accept the political reality that they lost on this issue. So as far as I am concerned, we can spend the next year debating this on this floor. This is a home game for Republicans. But what you are doing to the American people, what you are doing to FEMA, what you are doing to the people who rely on their communities to be rebuilt, the TSA agents that go to work every day, the Coast Guard, is shameful.

Joe Biden opened up our border. It is literally unprecedented in American history that a President would say: We are not going to enforce our immigration laws. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama deported millions of people.

This is an effort by the Democrats--this debate--to kneecap immigration enforcement, to kneecap ICE. They lost the issue on the front end of the election. Now they want to make it so hard for ICE to do their jobs that deportations come to a halt. That is the truth, and anybody in this town who tells you otherwise is just spinning.

They don't want people deported because they are importing a voter base that they think will give them power. They are not even hiding behind this anymore. They have lost the argument with American citizens, and they think that if they flood this country with illegal immigrants--and by the way, you shouldn't have to prove you are an American citizen to vote. That is their position. You shouldn't have to show photo ID, which is broadly supported even among Democrat voters. Why? Why would they do that? Even though their voters don't want that, even though their voters want photo ID to be established when you vote, why would they be opposed to that? Because they want people who shouldn't be able to vote--illegal immigrants or fraudsters--to vote for them. That is the truth.

So we have now the most secure border in the history of our country, and we are trying to execute on the immigration laws that we have on the books that have been voted for by Republicans and Democrats alike, and Presidents of both parties have enforced those laws.

This is about the 21-point plan. If you think it is such a good idea, put that 21-point plan on the floor, and let's

vote on it. They won't do it because they will lose. They know what it does. It ties up ICE's ability--which, by the way, they already have to abide by due process. There are already warrants. They know all this. They want to confuse the issue--mostly because they believe in open borders but also because this Trump derangement syndrome is really a hard thing to kick, a really difficult thing for them to kick.

We heard people being talked about here on the Senate floor. I want to mention a few names that no Democrat will ever utter: Laken Riley, Rachel Morin, Jocelyn Nungaray, Kayla Hamilton. These are American daughters, American sisters who were murdered by illegal aliens.

By the way, Laken Riley's murderer wasn't a previously convicted violent criminal. So if that is your test of who should be deported, it didn't help Laken Riley's family.

My priority--and the reason why I have been on this floor so many times about this issue--my priority is for Americans. Our immigration laws are put in place for one reason: to benefit America and Americans.

The rhetoric that has come from the left on this and my Democrat colleagues--we talk about, why was Minnesota a flashpoint? It is the sanctuary city status, the nine sanctuary jurisdictions in this country. In them, ICE agents are 590 times more likely to be assaulted. Since January of last year, there has been a 1,347-percent increase in assaults against ICE officers, a 3,200-percent increase in vehicular attacks. And don't tell me Tim Walz doesn't have something to do with that, and don't tell me that Mayor Frey doesn't have something to do with that, with the rhetoric. Even Senators on this floor, you know, called it Trump's secret police and the gestapo and Nazis. Knock it off. I hope you know better, but some people are actually listening to you. You have created conditions where confrontations are more likely.

There are deportations happening all over this country, in red States and blue States alike. You don't see what you see in sanctuary jurisdictions because they are cooperating.

Let's be clear what sanctuary status really means to the American people, OK? Local authorities will not tell ICE agents when illegal alien rapists are being let out of prison. That is what it means practically. They hate Donald Trump so much and they believe in open borders so much or they want new voters in this country for them so much, they crave for power so much that they are willing to let an illegal immigrant rapist back out on the streets.

A murderer. A burglar. Nope, we are not telling you. And oh, by the way, we are not going to send 9-1-1 to help you if you have a problem.

This is insane.

So to my Republican colleagues, let's put all of those issues in front of the American people. I am not afraid of this debate at all. Bring it on.

What is sad is that the Democrats continue to play the Ole game here. They negotiate a deal, and then they hold it up. We saw this with the longest government shutdown in American history just a couple months ago, and now here we are again with DHS funding. Meanwhile, they are sipping wine and eating caviar in Europe. I went to Munich last year.

It is also worth pointing out, by the way, that 2 years ago almost to the day, we were here. Those of us who thought that ``bipartisan immigration plan'' was terrible--and it was, which is why it fell apart; it made illegal immigration easier--we had to hold the floor all weekend long--in a bipartisan affair, by the way--to get Ukraine funding done in time for Chuck Schumer to deliver $60 billion to Ukraine at the Munich Security Conference.

What I have learned in 3 years here is that the Munich Security Conference for Democrats is like the Super Bowl. This draw to commiserate with fellow Wilsonians is a powerful drug. I don't know why in the world Democrats get to vote no on this and fly to Munich.

If the American people had any idea what went on in this town, they would be way more upset than they are right now. They expect us to come up here and to work on their behalf, for Americans, for the American people, for Laken Riley's family, for Kayla Hamilton, who was autistic, who was raped and murdered in her apartment for the $3 that she had on her so an illegal immigrant could go to Target with his buddy and spend the 3 bucks.

Why don't we hear about those stories? Because it is not convenient to the narrative.

That is what we are fighting against and who we are fighting for-- that is who I am fighting for--and if it were up to me, we would be on this floor every single day fighting for Kayla Hamilton, fighting for Laken Riley, and for the countless other daughters of this country who have been raped and murdered by illegal immigrants.

Todd Lyons, earlier today, testified--OK, just to tell you how sick this is--that in Colorado, ICE wanted to perform an operation in Colorado to deport illegal alien Tren de Aragua gang members from an apartment complex. So they tried to work with the local authorities in that sanctuary State. Guess what happened. Protesters were there, but the illegal immigrant gang members were all gone. They had been tipped off.

I actually can't believe this is happening in my country. I can't believe somebody's instinct with this crazy, suicidal empathy would be to protect an illegal immigrant gang member who could very easily and has--there are some dangerous people--murdered a family member and terrorized a community. They would rather tip them off than to have them deported. These are the facts.

So what should we do?

Here is what I think: I think it is actually an opportunity for us to strengthen our immigration laws. The Democrats want to kneecap ICE. I have submitted the Protect America Act for debate. It would do four things:

One, it would end sanctuary city status for good.

Two, it would increase penalties for illegal entry and illegal reentry. A lot of these crimes are being committed by people who have been deported and they come back. That has happened.

By the way, if you come here illegally, I think you ought to have jail time. As a former prosecutor as the attorney general of Missouri, I can tell you that people responded to incentives. They knew when we had a partnership with Federal prosecutors in St. Louis that, if they were being busted for a Federal crime, they were going to jail. If it were a State crime and if Kim Gardner--the Soros-funded prosecutor in St. Louis at the time--were handling the case, they literally would laugh in the back seat of the cop car because they knew they would be out later that day.

No more catch and release. If we are serious about it, no more catch- and-release. It is over.

Three, if you assault an ICE officer, we are increasing those penalties too. Protest all you want--for God's sake, this is America, and we have different points of view--but you don't get to interfere in the operations of Federal law enforcement. Even if you really believe you are wearing the white hat, you don't get to do that.

Fourth, as for this NGO network that has been created and that is fomenting this vitriol and the operations that are putting ICE officers and citizens at risk, they need to lose their nonprofit status.

So, if we are serious about the problem, that is what we will do. But I will tell you what we are not going to do: We are not succumbing no matter how long it takes--if it is one day. Let's just say my Democrat friends come back from Munich and they feel really good about themselves because a bunch of European elites has told them all the things they want to hear and vice versa. We are not coming back here and going to make it harder for ICE to do their jobs. We are not doing it. I will do everything in my power--and I know a lot of other folks on my side of the aisle will do it too--to prevent that from ever happening because the American people saw what a disaster it was to have Democrats in charge of this country. We had a secure border. Joe Biden literally unsecured that border on day one, and we had 15 million people come here illegally.

We are not going back. The American people saw that. They voted for President Trump. He was very clear about it. This wasn't a footnote in his campaign. This was a central theme. You may not like it, but that is what our Republic is about.

For all the talk of saving democracy and sticking up for democracy I hear from the other side, it is all nonsense.

If they actually believed that, they would respect the fact that the American people voted for this, that they voted for deportations. I know that in the ``woke'' left world, that is a dirty word. It is not where I come from, not in Missouri. People believe in common sense. They don't think you should get to break the law like that and get away with it.

So I don't know when--you know, I guess we will be back here in a week or something, but the reality is not going to change no matter how much Chuck Schumer tries to villainize ICE agents. No matter how many times I hear my colleagues from the other side try to stir up people, it will not change this very basic reality: We have front-loaded money for deportations, and those deportations will continue, and there is nothing you can do about it.

Now, if you want to make a proposal to stop that, put it on the floor. You will lose, but I want them to know and also my colleagues that I am 100-percent committed to this. It is central to the idea of being a sovereign country. No sane country in the history of the world would do this. By the way, in speaking of heading over to Europe, ask them how mass migration is working out for them. They have done it, and it isn't working.

So, if you have got any advice coming back from that side of the Atlantic, I am not really interested on this topic or on censorship. Maybe you can deliver the message that they ought to step up for their own defense of their own continent in a more meaningful way. Now, that might not make you popular over there, but that is the message that I delivered when I went over last year.

But as it relates to illegal immigration, the deportations will continue, and I hope the American people understand that the people who just voted to defund ICE are sipping champagne in Europe, bad-mouthing the United States of America's foreign policy. That is who they are. That is the reality.

This debate will continue. But as far as I am concerned, Republicans, we should be playing offense here. Let's strengthen our immigration laws. Let's treat this as seriously of a problem for our country as it really is.

I yield the floor.