Providing for Consideration of H.R. Secure the Border Act of Providing for Consideration of H.R. Protecting Taxpayers and Victims of Unemployment Fraud Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BRECHEEN. Mr. Speaker, title 42 expires tomorrow. As Republicans are advancing the most conservative border bill ever, this administration is going to usher in more chaos on the southern border. It is going to be quite the contrast for the American people to witness.

Border Patrol agents are already seeing a surge, 26,000 illegals apprehended in a 72-hour period. This is on top of 5 million illegal immigrants that have come into this Nation within a 2-year period. That is more than the entire population of the State of Oklahoma, the State which I represent.

House Republicans have a plan, and it is the bill before us, the Secure the Border Act of 2023, which would resume wall construction. That includes the 200-plus miles of wall that was fully funded by Congress but shut down when President Biden, in contrast with the Constitution, with his pen said: ``Not another foot.''

This bill is going to deploy more technology. It is going to increase Border Patrol agents. It is going to end catch and release. Notice to appear in front of a judge has become notice to disappear under this administration.

Securing the border used to be a bipartisan issue. In fact, President Biden supported the Secure Fence Act of 2006 when he was a United States Senator. That bill included physical barriers; 150 miles of wall built under the Obama administration. Here is what then-Senator Biden, in his own words, said: ``Why I believe the fence is needed does not have anything to do with immigration as much as drugs.''

Biden continued: ``And let me tell you something, folks, people are driving across that border with tons, hear me, tons of everything from byproducts for methamphetamine to cocaine to heroin and it is coming up from corrupt Mexico.'' That was then-Senator Biden.

This statement is long before the fentanyl crisis, where 70,000 people from the United States died last year because of fentanyl poisoning, the leading cause of death between ages 18 and 45. Biden's own Border Patrol agents disagree with this administration.

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