Termination of National Emergency Declared By the President on February 2019

Floor Speech

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Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, what we are witnessing is a President who poses a direct threat to both our military families and America's national security.

First, as we have heard, there is no border emergency. That is a fabrication. The administration's own statistics show that crossings and apprehensions are at a historic low. The vast majority of illegal drugs come in at our ports of entry. A wall will not stop that.

Many who cross our borders are women and children. They are not running from border agents. They are seeking them out for help and for asylum.

Second, this will make life harder for America's military families, and, thus, hurt our national security. Who would ever intentionally make life tougher for the brave men and women who serve our country? It is monstrous, really, when you think about the sacrifices that they already make for this country.

As the chair of the Appropriations Committee Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Subcommittee, tomorrow I will hold a hearing to ask our service Secretaries exactly which projects they previously told us they really needed, but now should be sacrificed for a needless wall.

What will these leaders ask their troops to give up just so Trump can have a useless, wasteful wall? Training or intelligence facilities? Hangars for planes that cost billions? Schools for our military families' children? This is a power grab.

After failing to get his way in a funding dispute with Congress, Trump is throwing an unconstitutional temper tantrum. He is using the tools of an authoritarian, jeopardizing our military readiness to steal himself a wall that he could not get the lawful way. The dangerous precedent he will set is one that I hope all of my Republican colleagues will reject.

The President says a wall will keep Americans safe, but stealing funds from military families makes us all less safe. Bypassing Congress and the Constitution, and starving military families of funding is not patriotism. It is everything that true patriots fight against.

Mr. Speaker, it is harder for me to imagine how a big, beautiful wall will somehow bestow upon us knowledge that people are jumping over it or going under it.

Those kinds of things do not work across the entire border. That may have its place at some points, and I am sure we have border wall and border fencing in the locations where it is necessary, but in the other locations, we need--in addition to more Border Patrol officers who are paid a living wage--we need the technology and the other assets that can surveil and help with the apprehension of people who are coming across the border at points that are not legal points of entry.

But the point is, today's crisis that faces the people of Central America and drives them to our southern border is driving them to lawful points of entry to seek asylum protection under this Nation's laws, and that is something that they are entitled to.

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