Secure the Border Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Texas for yielding.

To respond to my friend Mr. Newhouse's question, first, I thank him for his unwavering support for American agriculture. The industry is lucky to have such a champion. He has been very vocal in addressing some of the questions. I also thank him for working with us on those questions. I know he has those concerns, which he brought up, but I am glad that we have been able to work through many of those.

As majority leader, I can commit that we will continue to work with Mr. Newhouse on legislation to address the workforce needs of our agriculture industry.

Mr. Speaker, we have a crisis at our Nation's border. That is why we are bringing the Secure the Border Act to the floor today. It is why the President and Secretary Mayorkas should be doing everything in their power to stop the surge that we are seeing today--maybe 10,000 people coming across illegally.

That is something that Secretary Mayorkas says is not an open border. I would hate to see his description of an open border if 10,000 people coming across in 1 day is not.

They are derelict in their duty because they have opened up the border to the tune of over 5 million people who have come into our country. That is more than my home State of Louisiana who have come into our country illegally just in the last 2 years that Joe Biden has been President.

We have asked where they are going. We asked how they are taking care of them, who is housing them, whether the kids are going to school. They don't know.

In fact, The New York Times just reported that the Biden administration lost track of 85,000 young kids who have come into our country illegally. How do you lose 85,000 young kids and then say you don't have a problem and you won't work with Republicans to fix it?

The President actually issued a veto threat on this bill. What does this bill do? It secures America's border again. It ends catch and release. It says: Let's get back to rule of law.

We are actually a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. We can do both, but this President has abandoned the rule of law to the point where more than 5 million people have come across illegally.

What has it also done? It has brought drugs into our country. The cartels are running our southern border.

Today, we are going to lose 300 young people to fentanyl deaths because President Biden opened our southern border. Yesterday, 300 young people died. Tomorrow, another 300 young people in America will die because the President opened the southern border, and he doesn't care about it. He issued a veto threat on the bill that would fix it.

House Republicans are not going to sit on the sidelines. We brought a bill to the floor that everybody should vote for.

Again, get back to rule of law. Give our Border Patrol agents the tools they need so that if somebody actually has an asylum claim, they can come and seek asylum the legal way.

Do you want to come to America? We are the most generous Nation in the world. Legal immigration works.

When you open up the border and bring 5 million people in 2 years, it undermines the entire legal system, and it breaks down communities not just at the border but all across America.

This is wreaking devastation all across America, not only the deaths but all the other things that go with it, and the President won't fix it.

Today, we can take a step to fix this problem. Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to vote for this bill, and I urge the President to get engaged in working with us to solve this problem. Let's pass the bill.

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Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my good friend for yielding. I also want to thank you for your unwavering support of American agriculture. The industry is lucky to have such a strong advocate and champion in Congress.

I am proud to bring H.R. 2 to the Floor today--it is the strongest border security bill this House has ever considered. I want to thank Chairmen Jordan, Green, and McCaul for their tireless work to put together this bill at such a pivotal time with Title 42 expiring today and our border crisis only getting worse. And I'd like to thank our lead sponsors, Mario Diaz-Balart and Tom McClintock--they were both instrumental in getting this deal done.

Dan, I want to thank you for working with us--I know you have some concerns, but I am glad we have been able to work through those concerns.

As Majority Leader, I can commit to you that we will continue to work with you on legislation to address the workforce needs of our agriculture industry.

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