Support of Short-Term Program Banning Immigration

Floor Speech

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Madam Speaker, the rhetoric coming from my colleagues across the aisle and the liberal media regarding President Trump's executive order to strengthen American's immigration policy is harmful to our country and is placing law enforcement professionals at risk due to incited protests.

The fact is that President Trump is protecting America by strengthening our vetting procedures. The details of his order clearly state that the allowed level of immigrants from the affected foreign nations is essentially the average rate of the 15 years before President Obama's dangerous expansion of the program in 2016.

President Trump's executive order has simply restored sanity to America's immigration policy. It was President Obama who, against all reasonable consideration, put the American citizenry at risk in 2016 by his massive expansion of immigration from nations that are known to produce radical Islamic terrorists. Thank God that President Trump has upheld his oath to protect American lives.

This order puts a temporary pause on immigration from seven countries: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, and Somalia. The governments in these countries are either hostile to the United States, or presently in great turmoil.

As a professional law enforcement officer for the last 13 years, I paid very close attention to the insane policies that put American citizens and American police at risk. I have watched carefully and prayerfully as terror attack after terror attack has shed American blood on American soil, and I have been privy to many jihadist plots that were stopped because of the dedicated courage and skilled law enforcement investigators; the same cops that have been for years maligned, attacked, and murdered across our Nation by Americans incited to violence by dangerously irresponsible rhetoric from the left. It is clear to me that the status quo immigration policy will not control the threat, and I am thankful that President Trump is using his office to reverse the madness that preceded him.

America's war against terror should never invoke partisan revolt. We, as members of the people's House, must recognize that the American people are not willing to accept radical Islamic terror within our borders--from immigrants or anyone else--as a fact of American life.

President Trump's executive order for a short-term ban on entry from countries that are known to foster jihadists, combined with a systematic review of our immigration and vetting procedures is both necessary and reasonable.

Madam Speaker, the time for weakness has passed. Now is the time for strength and courage. Now is the time to reform our border control and immigration policies.

President Trump's order is not a betrayal of American values. His actions inspire hope to the millions of Americans who have watched our Nation decline over the past decade, watched helplessly, as radical Islamic horror has gripped the world and, unbelievably, been allowed into our own Nation with wanton disregard.
Now is the time for America to embrace its rightful place as leader of the free world. The President's executive order to strengthen our immigration policies are reflective of the timeless wisdom of peace through strength. It protects the American citizenry, preserves American values, reassures America's allies, and ensures America's future.

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