Supporting Cuban People

Floor Speech

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I would like to address the Chamber on what I believe is the biggest crisis facing America today. I spent last week down at the McAllen section of the U.S.-Mexico border, and what I saw horrified me.

Late at night, from 10 to 11 o'clock, I watched people from all around the world walking on a pathway from the Rio Grande River to the Border Patrol station. We are right now at a point where I believe over 70,000 people a month are being allowed in the country. Many of these people have no ID at all, so there is no way to confirm who they are, to even see if they have a criminal record.

Upon being processed through the border station, even without an ID, we buy them plane tickets for all around the country.

Scandalously, at a time when we are talking about COVID again, even if they test positive, people are held in apartments or hotels and not guarded, so they turn around and are being released. At a time in which we are supposed to be more careful than ever, we have a situation in which people who are coming here illegally are allowed in the country.

Furthermore, we watch as we have hit new records for the number of people who are killed in this country by illegal drug overdoses, including fentanyl. We are up to 90,000 people in the last year. I believe the reason we are hitting all-time records is because, as bad as heroin is, fentanyl is far worse. And all or virtually all of that fentanyl is coming across the southern border.

Meanwhile, we cede control of our immigration policy to Mexican drug gangs. These gangs charge, depending upon where you are coming from, $3,000, $10,000, $20,000 to come across the border. They are so heartless that it is not uncommon that if Border Patrol approaches them on a boat from the Mexican side to the American side, whether it is with people or with drugs, they will throw a 3- or 4-year-old child into the Rio Grande River, knowing that our Border Patrol will fight to save that child rather than go after the people sneaking in the country or going after the drugs. This is the brutal type of people we are assisting by continuing the current policy or lack of a policy.

I strongly urge the Biden administration to step up to the plate to make sure that COVID-positive people are no longer let into the country; bring back the old policy, the migrant protection protocol, when we had only 6,000 people a month rather than 70,000 people a month crossing the border; require some sort of photo ID, like every other American would have before they get on an airline.

Good grief, who knows what type of criminal records these people have. Of course, we can only check criminal records in the United States. Nobody has any idea if these people have horrific criminal records in Honduras, El Salvador, Brazil, or all the other countries that people are coming here from.

Madam Speaker, I strongly encourage the Biden administration to step up.

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