Issues of the Day
Floor Speech
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Mrs. CAMMACK. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding. It is an honor and a privilege to serve alongside Representative Gohmert, and I look forward to many more conversations on so many different topics, and I thank him for allowing me to be part of this Special Order today.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to stand up for and in support of our Border Patrol agents, our National Guard, the officers of the Texas Department of Public Safety, our local law enforcement officers protecting our hometowns, and all those that have made securing our border their mission.
In fact, my own Florida National Guard and several of our Florida officers and deputies have become part of the mission to secure our southwest border. For our Border Patrol agents, they have been trained to do a job that this administration will not let them do. They have dedicated their lives and careers to upholding the rule of law, something that this administration will not do.
They have continually put themselves in harm's way, keeping their heads down and continuing to follow orders. And their reward to date? Well, just look at the facts. Look at the numbers.
Approximately 40 percent of our Border Patrol agents are babysitting and processing, not patrolling, not securing, and certainly not defending the homeland because that is not their mission today.
Eleven agents are currently in the hospital fighting COVID from contact with untested migrants, three of whom are in the ICU today; two are intubated.
Just last month, the month of June, Border Patrol agents apprehended 188,829 migrants. Let me repeat that: 188,829 migrants. That is the highest number in over 21 years. It is staggering. It is shocking. And it should frighten every single American today.
And that doesn't even include the got-aways. The got-aways are the people actively seeking to avoid detection by Border Patrol or National Guard or Texas DPS or any number of resources and assets that we have on the border.
The got-aways right now are about 200,000. And these are just the folks that have been seen by an agent or caught on camera running away. These are the people who are criminals, registered sex offenders, gang members, cartel members. These are people who are now in our country and we don't know where, doing God knows what.
And, of course, let's not forget the drugs, the narcotics that have been seized at the border but also the ones that have made it across. You know, just in the month of June the fentanyl seized--keep in mind, only 20 percent is what they estimate is caught coming across the border--the amount of fentanyl in pounds, over a thousand, is enough to kill every man, woman, and child in the State of Florida 10 times over. And that was just in the month of June. And that was just fentanyl. That doesn't include the cocaine, the heroin, the meth, the weed, and any other narcotics that come.
When you talk about the money that is being made by the cartels every single month, last month, based on the number of apprehensions, that 188,829 that were apprehended, on average, each one of those paid the cartels $6,000. You do the math. That is over $1 billion in human smuggling. Human smuggling. That doesn't include the narcotics. And believe me, as those narcotics get across the border and into our communities, they get more expensive and more valuable, and the crime and violence that comes along with them gets bigger and tougher and scarier.
The numbers are pretty staggering, and as we stand here, I mentioned the agents that are currently in the hospital fighting for their lives because they came into contact with people who come from countries that don't test, don't vaccinate, and now today we have a 900 percent increase in COVID cases along the southwest border. 900 percent.
And you know what happens?
These people are not tested. They are checked for lice and scabies, and then on our taxpayer dime they are released into our country.
For all of our Border Patrol agents, I want to say, I am sorry. I am sorry that this administration does not have your back. I am sorry that those on the left don't have your back. But please know that my colleagues and I, we always will.
Let me be clear: This is not about legal immigration. This is about fighting against illegal immigration and the criminals who are profiting off of it.
Now, as we stand here laying down the facts of this crisis--and it is, in fact, a crisis, despite the fact that this administration cannot call it that--Americans around the country are probably wondering how this affects them. They are outraged, sure, but how are they impacted in their daily lives in their communities?
I have to tell you, every town in America is a border town. The nearly one million individuals apprehended to date for this year are coming to our hometowns.
In Florida, they estimate that 70 percent of the migrants that are coming across are coming to Florida. Seventy percent are bound for my home State of Florida. Yes, every town in America is a border town.
And you ask, how are they getting to our hometowns? On our dime.
The NGOs have government contracts. They buy plane tickets and bus tickets, and then they submit reimbursement from FEMA on our dime in our hometowns unchecked, unvetted, and coming to a town near you. Every town in America is a border town.
And as they are on these planes, do they have to show ID? No. No, they do not, because TSA has special guidance that these people are not subject to the same requirements that every other American is when they board an airplane.
They do not have to show photo ID. They do not have to prove who they say they are. Yes, every town in America is a border town now.
And you wonder what happens when these folks get to our hometowns? They use taxpayer-funded schools, taxpayer-funded medical facilities, public safety resources. The list goes on and on. It is about enough to make you sick.
Now when the left decides that taking care of unvetted, untested, and totally dependent illegals is totally more important than taking care of our veterans and some of our homeless veterans, I think that is when we, as Americans, and particularly, ``us,'' my colleagues, Republicans and Democrats, need to stand up and say enough. Enough is enough. The left's agenda is dangerous.
Clearly, they have turned every town in America into a border town and defunded our police along the way. The very people who are fighting to protect our hometowns. Drugs, crime--bring it on, they say. Never mind the 93,000 Americans that lost their lives to drugs just last year.
Mr. Speaker, I recently took about six sheriffs from my home State to the border. I wanted my sheriffs in my area, to see exactly what they were up against, because when there is a leak, you can mop all day long, but until you fix the leak, the water will just keep coming. And they saw firsthand really what is at stake. Our country is at stake. And they said, right out the gate, every town now I see is a border town. And let me be exceptionally clear, that you cannot protect your hometown if you cannot defend the homeland, and that starts with securing the damn border.
Yes, stopping this influx of crime and drugs and illegal activity starts with securing our border. But if the crime and the drugs, the negative impacts to our hometowns, our country, our society, our culture, our kids, if the lack of support for our agents isn't enough to convince every single one of my colleagues to take action, then perhaps the horrific humanitarian crisis unfolding is; the trafficking of children, maybe that is what it takes to inspire action from those on the left.
Next here to me today you see this photo. This is a photo of a 3- year-old little girl. I took this photo on April 11 at 1:46 p.m., standing just outside McAllen at the border. The man holding her told us--standing right there as he was being processed in the field--that that was his little girl. He couldn't tell me her name, and she was so scared, she couldn't even tell me her name, or anyone else with us. The man told me and my colleagues that he and his daughter had been traveling for 2 months.
Mr. Speaker, 12 hours later while standing in the Donna processing facilities, Border Patrol agents who had processed and conducted an interview with this man, told us that when they had threatened a rapid DNA test on him because red flags kept popping up in his story, that he admitted that that little girl--this little girl--was not his daughter.
She was someone else's daughter; someone who was willing to let their child be used, trafficked--and in this case, it is called recycling. Because this administration has policies that encourage children under the age of six to be recycled, where they get matched up with criminals so that they can be escorted across the border. That man--this man--was turned back.
This little girl today is somewhere in the United States in the custody of HHS away from her family, future unknown. Her story is not unique. This is a regular occurring event; the recycling of children.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues: Are you okay with the recycling of children? Is this administration okay with the recycling and trafficking of children?
It is disgusting.
As I said, there are stories like this that go on for days. I, myself, met a 9-year-old little girl who couldn't barely get the words out to tell me her name and where she was from, because her vocal cords had given out from screaming so loud, because she was being gang-raped by the cartels. If that doesn't make your stomach turn, I don't know what will.
President Biden, your administration has proven that while your words are dangerous, your actions are deadly. Your administration has turned every single town in America into a border town, and every American should be outraged at their carelessness, the lack of regard for public health, public safety, national security, and basic human decency.
Mr. Speaker, securing the border is not a Republican or a Democrat issue. This is an American issue, and it should be our top priority. We need to extend title 42. We need to reinstate the MPP policies. Put the politics and the egos aside and do what is best for our country for the first time in this administration.
Until then, for myself and my colleagues, who actually give a damn, we will continue to craft legislation and put the words into action, and do the thing that the majority and President Biden won't do, secure the border.
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