Border Security

Floor Speech

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Mr. BUDD. Thank you, as a friend and Congresswoman from Missouri, for yielding and holding such an important and timely Special Order.

Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, President Trump went to the American people and rightfully made the case for the border security proposal he has submitted to Congress, and it is a proposal that I fully support.

This plan, which was developed by border security and law enforcement professionals, takes necessary steps to secure our border, protect our communities, and it ends the plague of crimes that were committed by illegal aliens against American citizens.

The truth is America is at a decision point. It is time to decide what kind of country, exactly, we want to be: a country founded on the rule of law or on lawlessness.

We have seen States across the country declare themselves a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, willing to put the lives of U.S. citizens at risk for political purposes. We have lawmakers here in this Chamber who are intent on eliminating our Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, ICE, which is tasked with enforcing our immigration laws.

We know that the vast majority of immigrants are great people, and it would be foolish to even think otherwise. In fact, legal immigration-- that is legal, with an L--historically has been beneficial economically, socially, and culturally to the United States, and I have no doubt that we are going to continue to invite and welcome legal immigrants with open arms to our country every day. We do that for about 1 million a year. We are a very welcoming and generous country. But to ignore the crisis at our southern border is also dangerous.

Throughout 2018, Customs and Border Patrol seized 1.7 million pounds of narcotics. We have seen a 38 percent increase in methamphetamines and a 73 percent increase in fentanyl coming across our borders. These drugs are taking the lives of tens of thousands of our people every year--I think we heard the number 72,000 last year, including many of those from my home State of North Carolina. For those who are living with addiction, these drugs steal their dignity, and they steal their self-worth.

The trafficking of women and children across our southern border is equally as egregious. In his address to the Nation the other night, the President called this a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul.

The Department of Homeland Security has also been very clear regarding the national security implications that come with having a border that can be easily accessed by those who want to cause us harm.

To conclude, I will say that, right now, the government is in a shutdown because President Trump requested funding for a border wall that Democrats once supported when there was a different President.

To be frank, the current shutdown isn't due to policy difference; it is due to politics. So let's put politics aside, and let's do what is right for our constituents and for our country.

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