American Dream and Promise Act of 2021
Floor Speech
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Mr. SCALISE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this amnesty bill. And if you look at what is happening at our southern border right now, America is facing a serious crisis. Our southern border is being overrun, the facilities, the detention centers that are set up to hold people who are coming across, are being overwhelmed.
In fact, if you listen to what the border agents are telling us, it is total mayhem, to quote one of the border agents. Many facilities are not at 100 percent or 200 percent or 300 percent capacity, but even worse than that. There are kids who aren't getting enough food, who aren't being able to shower more than once a week.
This is going on in American detention facilities today, and President Biden refuses to acknowledge the problem. Part of dealing with the problem is to first admit there is a problem, and President Biden doesn't even want to acknowledge it.
And then on the heels of this border crisis that is going on right now, there is a bill on the House floor to create amnesty, to create a bigger magnet, saying, come to the southern border.
The Homeland Security Secretary has been pressed repeatedly the last few days to tell people to stop coming across the border illegally, and he won't do it. He says, Well, they will come right now. As if there is a time to break the law.
Let's get back to legal immigration, a system that actually works for America. But when you have a crisis at the border, the last thing you should do is make it worse. That is what this bill does.
We should be having an honest conversation about how to make our legal system of immigration work; not how to ignite a crisis at the border and make it worse. We know how bad it is over there. In fact, because of the encouragement to cross the border illegally, there are caravans of young kids coming across, and reports that up to a third of all the women coming across are being sexually assaulted on the journey. Stop this humanitarian crisis. Reject this bill.
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