Secure Our Southern Border

Floor Speech

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Ms. MALLIOTAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight one of the crises that we are facing in our country, and it is obvious to so many--except, unfortunately, so many in this House--that we have a crisis at our southern border.

We have not only seen over 4.7 million people cross illegally, many of whom are claiming asylum despite not qualifying for asylum, but we are also seeing record levels of fentanyl killing so many Americans each and every single day. We must take a stand to secure our border to stop this flow of illegal drugs, to stop this mass illegal migration.

When you talk about the number of 4.7 million, when you think about the number of people who have actually evaded our government, who have evaded any interaction with our law enforcement and CBP agents, you are talking about 1.2 million people. That is more than twice the size of Staten Island, the borough in New York City I represent.

It is outrageous to think that we would have individuals entering our country illegally, and we don't know what their intentions are, where they are coming from, why they are here. That is what scares me the most as an individual who represents the city of New York.

We know that 98 suspected terrorists on our terrorist watch list crossed the border last fiscal year, and we know, so far this year, there have been another 38. That should be alarming to every single person in this country.

We must know who is entering our country and what their intentions are. To allow this amount of people to evade law enforcement, to evade any interaction with our government, is a very dangerous action on behalf of this administration.

House Republicans believe that Secretary Mayorkas has completely abdicated his responsibility to keep our country secure, and we will be moving forward with hearings to expose what he is doing. I do believe at the end of the day it warrants him being impeached and removed from his position.

Also, I highlight how the Federal Government's lack of action at the border, coupled with my State legislature's and Governor's horrible actions in New York, have led to what we are seeing now in terms of a rise in crime.

First of all, New York is dealing with major actions in terms of crime, car thefts, people being released. In fact, I just read yesterday that, in my district, a 20-year-old guy who has been stealing cars is being released right back onto the streets. It has been about three times. The first time he was arrested, it was for 20 counts of car theft.

Let's now look at what we are doing here. When I went down to Federal Plaza and met with our ICE officials, they are saying that New York City is not cooperating with any detainer requests for people who are criminals. That means they either were convicted of a crime in their home country or were convicted of a crime here.

It is the worst of the worst in society that ICE is trying to remove from our country, and our local officials won't cooperate. I think it is outrageous that the city of New York continues to harbor people who are not only in this country illegally but are committing crimes on top of it.

Just the other day, New York City residents found out that they are paying to house, paying to feed, paying to provide services to individuals who were shoplifting in our State. Think about that. Not only are they crossing into our country illegally, but after committing crimes, they were released back onto the street thanks to our State's ridiculous bail law, and on top of it, the taxpayers of the city of New York are paying to house and feed them. How does that make any sense, and how is that in the best interests of our citizens?

I am the daughter of immigrants. I understand and appreciate the aspirations of the American Dream. We need to work together to address what is happening at our border. We need to work together to ensure that those legitimate asylum seekers are not getting stuck in the bureaucracy and the red tape because of those individuals who are here claiming asylum when they don't qualify.

We have to work on our visa system to ensure that we address the labor shortage. We should have more visas, employee-sponsored visas, and family-sponsored immigration, as well.

I look forward to working with my colleagues to secure our border. Let's impose some common sense.

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