Border Security

Floor Speech

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Mr. WALBERG. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Missouri for taking this on this evening, to make a point that we are not just talking politics here, but we are talking lives. We are talking freedom. We are talking opportunity. We are talking security.

We must secure our border, Madam Speaker. Driving to the Detroit airport today to fly here, I took note of the number of walls that have been erected along Interstate 94 just to secure the communities developed along the highway from noise and sight problems.

We take a lot of effort to do those type of things, but we have some people who, for some reason--political, I believe--want to stop a wall or a barrier from being developed that the people of this country want to see.

It is not because, as it has been said, that we hate people outside of the walls. It is that we love people inside of the walls, and we want to pass that love on to people who desire the American Dream and desire to be part of the American ideal.

We see 31 percent of all the women migrating up from the southern countries who are sexually assaulted on the way up, and 17 percent of the males have been sexually assaulted on the way up. We have a human trafficking problem that reaches all across the United States. A lot of those problems result from a border wall that is not secured.

We have an opioid epidemic in our country that is devastating the dreams of a generation or more. There are too many families in my district and your districts who know the pain and suffering that comes from this crisis.

Just a couple of months ago, our community lost a young man, Christopher Risner, from Jackson, a wonderful young guy, a good athlete in high school and student in college, until he got caught in the opioid, heroin abuse trap. Fighting to extricate himself from it, surviving it, he fought the battle valiantly. He went through a number of treatment centers, came out, and began to work his life forward.

I had the privilege of going to a number of forums, speaking to high school students and others, telling his story of the battle that he faced and what he was doing to try to succeed and change. But it was just 2 months ago that he lost that battle, and I stood in front of his open casket and thought: Are we doing everything we can to secure our people against this type of scourge?

Madam Speaker, I suggest that we aren't if we are unwilling, for political reasons, to stop a President, to stop many Members of this Congress from doing what we know needs to be done.

All of us have heartbreaking stories from our back home experiences of families that are losing loved ones far too soon.

I am proud of the bipartisan work we have done to combat the opioid crisis. Sitting on the Energy and Commerce Committee, I saw the number of bills that we put forward--I believe, 70 in all--and saw the President sign that just last November.

But we must redouble our efforts. And as we do that, one priority is we must keep these deadly drugs off our streets in the first place. In fiscal year 2018 alone, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized a total of 1.7 million pounds of narcotics.

To curb the flow of drugs into our communities, we must secure our southern border. There is no doubt we need a comprehensive solution. A border wall is just one component of what we need to do. We also need more surveillance technology, more border agents, and more resources to address the humanitarian crisis at the border, yes. But as the experts at the border tell us, a border wall, a security barrier must be part of that solution.

At a time when hundreds of Americans die each week from overdoses, we need to give our border agents all the tools they need to stem the tide of these deadly drugs and to protect them as well. It is time for Speaker Pelosi to get serious about border security, to negotiate to a solution.

Let's stop the political games and negotiate a solution that keeps the American people safe, keeps illicit drugs off our streets, puts an end to this partial shutdown, and, may I suggest as well, gives greater opportunity and security to those who deem it their purpose in life to legally experience the American Dream. We want to see that happen, Madam Speaker.

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