Providing for Consideration of H.R. Ig Independence and Empowerment Act; Providing for Consideration of H.R. Replacement of Bust of Roger Brooke Taney with Bust of Thurgood Marshall; Providing for Consideration of H.R. Investing in A New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation in America Act; Providing for Consideration of H. Res. Establishing the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol; and for Other Purposes

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Pennsylvania, and I thank the gentlewoman from New Mexico for articulating so well the state of our southern border, which is the direct result and the consequence of the rote incompetence of the current administration and my Democratic colleagues on the other side of the aisle. That is the best I can put it.

Or, frankly, it is the purposeful use of the border for political purposes. Because there is nothing else that can explain what is actually happening at the state of our border. That a political party would say that having cartels having operational control of our border, to the detriment of the well-being of the United States and its citizens; or the migrants who seek to come here, getting put into the human and sex trafficking trade, that somehow that should be seen as a compassionate position by my colleagues on the other side.

But I will tell you that it is a policy that is in the false name of compassion.

I note that Vice President Harris finally found her way to the border, although it was in a pit stop on her way to Los Angeles, taking 4 hours to stop in El Paso for a photo-op to go say hi to some Border Patrol en route to Los Angeles.

That is not the kind of visit that we have been talking about that is required of the President of the United States or his appointee, the Vice President, who is supposedly in charge of securing the border of the United States.

And I would note that this is real. That for those of us who go and spend time on the border and talk to ranchers getting overrun; talk to people getting harmed, getting broken into; high-speed chases in communities in south Texas; the massive amounts of opioids flowing into Texas and throughout the rest of our country; the number of migrants being abused in the human and sex trafficking trade, it is very real.

To the little girls who I have spoken to on the border and visited with, coming across the river at midnight, 1:00, 2:00 in the morning, and the dangers that they have been put into, I would ask my Democratic colleagues: Why don't they care?

Why don't my Democratic colleagues care about these migrants being abused and exploited by cartels?

Today, right now, as we speak, a child is on an interstate in Texas, heading to be put into child pornography and into the sex trafficking trade. As we speak in the people's House, it is happening, literally, at this moment.

Some amount of opioids is going into I-10, flowing over through Houston, throughout the rest of the southeast to be distributed throughout our country, heading west on I-10 to go out to the West Coast.

Why did Governor DeSantis send resources to Texas?

Because his State is getting overrun by opioid abuse that is coming through the southwest border.

We have a massively wide open border that is being exploited, and the reality of the situation is it is my Democratic colleagues who refuse to enforce the law. It is that simple.

Think, from October to December of 2020, in the previous administration, there were 185,000 expulsions made under Title 42, which the gentlewoman from New Mexico just discussed. That was 85 percent of all encounters. Think about that: 85 percent of the encounters we were able to expel under Title 42.

Compared to the Biden administration, since relaxing Title 42--not yet eliminating it, although that is allegedly coming--relaxing it, only 64 percent of encounters were enforced between February to April of 2021, leaving 289,000 expulsions under Title 42.

So what will happen when that additional 60 percent of people are taken in?

Border Patrol can't do their job, y'all. They can't. Border Patrol is overrun.

Our border is wide open between the ports of entry because the Border Patrol is processing people at processing centers in McAllen. The Vice President would know that if she hadn't missed the mark by 750 miles, landing her plane in El Paso instead of McAllen.

Tomorrow, 30 to 40 of my colleagues on this side of the aisle--to the best of my knowledge, zero, unfortunately, on the other side of the aisle--are going to the border to meet with Governor Abbott and former President Trump to talk about what is happening in McAllen, where the actual crisis exists.

My friend from Pennsylvania rightly noted that COVID still remains a major public health issue at the border, a risk for Americans and migrants. Latin America and the Caribbean have the world's highest death toll from COVID in proportion to its population, with 33 million reported infections and 1 million reported deaths.

Brazil leads the region. It leads the world in the daily average number of new infections reported. Colombia is reporting the highest rate of infections in South America. Guatemala is at peak. Honduras is at 86 percent of peak.

Border Patrol had 9,000 CBP employees test positive, and 32 CBP employees have died. As of March, 7.4 percent of tests given to UACs in the past year turned out to be positive, and multiple facilities have had positivity rates of 10 percent or higher. That is the reality of what is going on at the border.

Yet Title 42, the health code provisions that allow us to secure the border during a pandemic, during the spread of communicable diseases, is about to be jettisoned by the Biden administration, endangering the American people and endangering our Border Patrol.

We need to enforce the full Title 42 authority, and it is imperative for border and public health security. That is why we should defeat the previous question. We will amend the rule to immediate consideration of my friend from New Mexico's bill, H.R. 471, as amended, that will preserve existing border health protection measures intended to safeguard the citizens of our country.

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Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, if my Democrat colleagues vote for the previous question, which I expect that they will do, they are choosing to pursue a radical leftist environmental agenda that will harm Americans, that will harm Americans, rather than secure our border, which we are presenting as an option, for us to do our job in the people's House, to actually do our duty as the people's House to secure the border of a sovereign nation to the benefit of our people, of the State of Texas, our entire Nation as a whole, and the migrants who seek to come here.

That is the choice right now, ladies and gentlemen. It is a choice for this body. Choose to secure the border of the United States and make our country stronger, or secure a political agenda which has no hope of uniting this country and benefiting the American people.

The small businesses that the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania was talking about, let's talk about the small businesses that got crushed under COVID, crushed by the policies of this body and others, that were shutting businesses down to the tune of 100,000 businesses, forcing them to close.

Let's talk about the impact of our kids and schools and the masks being worn, and the mental health issues, and the cancer screenings that didn't occur because we had locked down and shut down our economy.

And, right now, let's talk about the damage being done to this country because of wide open borders with empowered cartels.

We should, right now, defeat the previous question so that we can amend it to do the work of the American people.

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