We Must Secure Our Border

Floor Speech

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Mr. BILIRAKIS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to discuss the ongoing border crisis.

Last week, President Biden's Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, told Congress, ``The border is secure.'' The facts indicate that this statement was absolutely false.

The Biden administration has embraced policies to open the southern border, not to secure it. In reality, these open border policies have created one of the worst border crises in history.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, this August alone, 208,887 people were apprehended trying to illegally enter our country through the southern border, which is a 317 percent increase from last August. It is really a big problem, Madam Speaker.

Since February of 2021, the agency says more than 1.2 million people have been apprehended illegally crossing the border. That staggering statistic represents more than the entire Pasco or Pinellas Counties, which are in my congressional district. I represent them.

When I was at the border a few months ago, Madam Speaker, the CBP agents I spoke with made it clear that they weren't even making a dent when it came to capturing the historic number of people who are illegally entering our country or with seizing the extraordinary volume of drugs that are flowing across the border.

That is truly unfathomable when you consider that CBP has seized 724 pounds of fentanyl and 595 pounds of heroin so far in fiscal year 2021.

These deadly drugs don't just stay in communities along the border. They are spread throughout the country into communities like mine in the Tampa Bay area. These drugs are ruining and claiming countless lives, Madam Speaker. In fact, Florida currently ranks second in the Nation for overdose deaths.

These are our neighbors and members of our family who are dying. We have to take action now.

In addition to drugs, weapons and humans are being trafficked through the border. Human traffickers are making an estimated $15 million a day. I am concerned for these victims, many of whom are children.

The root causes of this crisis are clear. President Biden's disastrous immigration policies are to blame. His administration stopped building the wall, brought back catch-and-release, and tried to get rid of the remain in Mexico policy.

The President himself has actually articulated a new openness toward migrants; something the leaders of Central America point to as a root cause of the crisis they are seeing.

The situation at the border is a dangerous, unmitigated disaster, Madam Speaker.

Especially now, as our enemies feel emboldened by what recently transpired in Afghanistan, we have to secure our border as a matter of national security.

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