Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Back the Blue Act, the Serve and Protect Act, and the Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila Federal Law Enforcement Protection Act. Mr. Speaker, all of these are necessary and commonsense protections for our brave law enforcement officers.

The hateful anti-law-enforcement rhetoric over the past 12 months has led to violence and division in Democrat-controlled cities across our country. We saw it in Seattle, Minneapolis, and Portland, city blocks burned, businesses destroyed, lives ruined.

Our local, State, and Federal law enforcement officers have been subjected to violence like we have never seen in this country, ambush shootings taking officers' lives, violent riots, police precincts burned to the ground--yes, burned to the ground.

Now more than ever, we need to send a loud and clear message to would-be criminals targeting our brave law enforcement officers: If you attack or harm law enforcement in any way, you will pay. We back the blue in this country.

To the radicals chanting to defund and abolish law enforcement, who are you going to call if an armed criminal breaks into your home? It is certainly not going to be a social worker.

We are a nation of laws and law and order. Without law enforcement, our country would cease to exist. Keep that in mind when you hear anti- law-enforcement zealots chanting to abolish police. What they are really advocating for is abolishing the United States of America.

The hatred, vitriol, and violence against law enforcement have to stop. We need to stand and support our law enforcement officers. That is why I urge my colleagues to support the Back the Blue Act, the Serve and Protect Act, and the Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila Federal Law Enforcement Protection Act.

Mr. Speaker, as a 30-year law enforcement veteran, the rhetoric and hatred I have seen towards police these last 12 months is disgusting.

Rather than recognize the over 800,000 law enforcement officers in this country who do their job honorably each and every day, the far left has sought to demonize and defund our law enforcement based off the actions of the few--the few who fail to uphold their oaths.

Every year in our country, there are more than 10 million arrests. Most Americans never hear a word about the millions of arrests that happen without incident.

Why is that?

Because it doesn't sell headlines. It doesn't fit the anti-law enforcement narrative.

The hateful anti-law enforcement rhetoric has led to violence and destruction in cities across our country. We see it in Seattle, Minneapolis, Portland--city blocks burned, businesses destroyed, and lives ruined forever. But we are not here today to focus on the anti- law enforcement zealots.

This is National Police Week. We are here today to honor the 22,000 brave law enforcement officers who have given the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty.

In 2021, the names of 394 officers killed in the line of duty were added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C. Fifty-nine of those brave men and women were from my home State of Texas. One of them, I knew.

Fort Bend County Precinct 4 Constable Deputy Caleb Rule of Needville, Texas, tragically lost his life in a friendly fire incident involving one of my own sheriff's deputies on May 29, 2020. It is a day I will never forget.

Caleb is survived by his wife, Eden; and four children, Annie, Rosalan, Mark and Lizzie. May God bless them.

It is stories like Caleb's and the hundreds of other brave law enforcement officers who sacrifice their lives in the line of duty every year, who remind us just how dangerous serving in law enforcement is. The focus not only this week but every week should be on their bravery, service, and sacrifice. They damn well deserve our respect and support today and every day.

Madam Speaker, for weeks now our country has witnessed the never-ending horrific images and stories from our southern border. We have heard from Border Patrol that they don't have enough agents to secure the southern border and babysit--yes, babysit--the tens of thousands of migrant children flooding across our southern border. As a result, criminal illegal aliens are slipping through undetected.

We are a nation of laws and law and order, or at least we used to be. Ever since this current administration assumed control of the White House, there has been an outright refusal--yes, refusal--to put the American people first and address the crisis at our southern border.

The administration's inactions will cost American lives, will cost billions of taxpayer dollars, and once again put the responsibility of the Federal Government on individual States.

I know this. I dealt with it firsthand as a sheriff in Fort Bend County, Texas. I had to tell dozens of residents in my home county whose homes were burglarized by a ring of illegal aliens from Honduras and Colombia that many of the illegal aliens had been deported multiple times.

In January of 2020, in my office, I had to sit and tell a son whose mother was killed in a hit and run that the illegal alien that ran his mother over had been deported six--yes, six--times prior. That fellow right there.

Madam Speaker, enough is enough. End this crisis. Put the American people first and secure our southern border.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to call up H.R. 682, the Reopen Schools Act, to get our kids out from behind screens and back in the classroom.