Issues of the Day
Floor Speech
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Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Encounters at the southern border have reached a 20-year high of now over one million illegals trying to smuggle themselves into our country. This proves that the Biden administration's immigration policies are not working and that they have reignited a crisis at our southern border previously contained by the Trump administration.
In fact, the border crisis is getting so bad that States not even geographically connected to the border are feeling the effects.
Just last week I was traveling down I-24 East from Nashville, Tennessee, to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and larger than day was this huge yellow billboard that said: ``CRISIS, Biden Fix the Border.'' The problems are drugs, cartels, and illegals. This was not some political party that put up that billboard, it was organic. It was homegrown right from the heart of the American people. The message is crystal clear, and America should stand up and take notice.
So why am I seeing this sign in Tennessee, a State that has no connection to the southern border? It is because the Biden administration is flying illegals to every State in the Union making every State a border State. This must stop.
Further complicating the crisis, the Biden administration is considering the elimination of title 42, a Centers for Disease Control public health authority that allows border officials to turn back illegal migrants due to the danger posed by communicable diseases.
By doing this, the Biden administration is not only preventing U.S. border officials from doing their jobs, but unnecessarily exposing American citizens to the dangers of COVID-19.
Since the beginning of the crisis, the Biden administration's reckless policies implemented by executive order have been exposing communities to COVID-19 by refusing to test every illegal migrant that is apprehended.
Even Secretary Mayorkas himself admitted to me in a committee hearing that his agency has released illegals into the interior of the United States who are known to be infected with COVID-19. Local communities are then forced to deal with it.
This is simply unacceptable.
For these reasons I introduced H.R. 2076, the COVID-19 Border Protection Act. My bipartisan legislation requires the Department of Homeland Security, in consultation with Health and Human Services, to develop a comprehensive strategy to test illegals that are encountered at the border and quarantine those who test positive. With the rise of the new COVID-19 delta variant, it is critical that every illegal alien who crosses the border be tested.
H.R. 2076 has bipartisan support and 41 cosponsors, including the support of all the GOP Members of the House Homeland Security Committee.
I will continue to push this effort to safeguard the American people and will soon introduce an amendment to the fiscal year 2022 DHS appropriations that will help accomplish the goals of H.R. 2076.
I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this legislation. I thank my good friend and colleague from Texas for holding this very important Special Order.
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