Secure the Border Act of 2023

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to H.R. 2. Title III of this bill happens to fall under the House Foreign Affairs Committee's jurisdiction.

There is undoubtedly a need to fix our broken immigration system. I think that we can all agree. It is undoubtedly correct that Congress needs to get involved in that. What Congress is not doing is talking about coming together for comprehensive immigration reform. If we want to get at the heart of how to improve, in a humane way, and protect our borders, we would be locked together to talk about comprehensive immigration reform that will keep us true to who we are and our values.

Sometimes when I am listening to this debate and some of the policies that are here, I am saying: Who are we? Who are we as a people, as a nation? Do we practice what we preach, or do we say to others: Do what we say, not what we do?

American values are important here. Title III seeks to codify and reinstate the Trump administration's failed Migrant Protection Protocols, known as MPP, and remain in Mexico policy. This is a disturbing and ineffective policy that returned asylum seekers at the border of Mexico and only allowed them to enter the United States for their court proceedings. Listening to my colleague: Return them to Mexico. That is it.

Because there are thousands of backlogged cases and too few judges to effectively handle them, those that we return to Mexico, these asylum seekers, are forced to live in Mexican border towns for long periods of time. As a result of that, the exact same thing that my colleague talked about, these border towns in Mexico are the ones that are dangerous. They are the reason why people are raped. That is where the violence and the crime is. They do not have, these towns in Mexico, the capacity to safely house the thousands of people fleeing their countries of origin.

We know that migrants face violence of all kinds, including murder, rape, trafficking, and kidnapping as they await their court appearance, the very things that we do agree is happening to these individuals, but we put blinders on. Just send them back. That will solve the problem of them living in tent encampments without adequate access to the basics. Just send them back to Mexico. Let them stay there with no clean water, no sanitation, no shelter, and no health services. Send them back. We don't care.

The MPP puts tens of thousands of migrants in greater danger, including families with children who we are supposed to care about. It also puts America at odds with our regional partners in ways that were and still are a detriment to our national security and our global standing.

Like Mr. McCaul, I have been here for 25 years. I have many families in my district who come to me all of the time with humanitarian concerns, asking for us to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

While nations like Colombia and Peru took in millions of Venezuelans crossing their border in desperate need of safety, America, the United States of America, the most resourced Nation on Earth, a Nation of immigrants, turn our backs on asylum seekers and our very own values in the name of deterrence. Turn our backs. We don't care. Send them back.

As CARICOM continues to work in a regional and multilateral way to find solutions to help Haiti, our neighbor in crisis, this body debates unilateral action that fails to see the collective challenge facing this hemisphere.

This bill is more than just shortsighted; it is cruel and harmful to our interests. We should be embarrassed, absolutely embarrassed, that Colombia's migration agency had suspended a program meant to return Colombian nationals found at the U.S. border with Mexico due to ``cruel and degrading treatment.'' Come on now.

We are facing a regional and global migration crisis. We have strong and divergent opinions about improving an imperfect immigration process and how to address the recent surge in migration since the pandemic. But Title III of this bill seeks to codify and reinitiate failed processes from the last administration that do not solve the real-life challenges regarding the movement of people, those people fleeing from instability and violence and lack of economic opportunity and education in their home countries.

Why? Because, apparently, we don't care. We don't care. Send them back. Who cares what happens to them? Send them back. We don't have comprehensive immigration reform to make sure that we are working and fixing the system because that is what we should be working on.

This isn't the first surge of migrants on our border, and it won't be the last, particularly as climate change will further limit resources and displace people across the region. To solve complex multicountry challenges, we must invest in multilateral solutions. When we invest in multilateral solutions, as we do in other parts of the world, that is how we win--not America alone, America by ourselves. That is not leadership. No one follows you if you are just by yourself, not working with others and not working with our allies.

The Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection from the Summit of the Americas in 2022 included proposals for collaborative problem solving on this issue with leaders across the region to address the root causes of forced displacement and irregular migration.

Working with our allies, as we are doing in other parts of the world, as we are doing with our NATO allies, as we are doing with our EU allies, as we are doing with our Indo-Pacific allies, we should be doing the same thing with our Western Hemisphere allies.

Why? Because our strength is not rooted in the sticks that we use to coerce outcomes. It is in the depth of our relationships and collaboration across the region to address the root causes of forced displacement and a regular migration, including by combating corruption and impunity, upholding our obligations to protect refugees, and partnering to promote opportunity and prosperity for people and communities, especially those most vulnerable across the region.

When I get on my knees at night and pray, when I am in church and pray, I pray for the poor and for those who cannot care for themselves. When I read books that I believe in, they talk about taking care of the poor, taking care of those who can't take care of themselves.

When I eat my dinner, my lunch, or my breakfast and I pray, I say: Bless those who are hungry and have no food. Bless those who may have food and no appetite. Bless those who have less than me.

We are the richest country in the world. Let's work toward resolving the root causes.

This bill doesn't address the migration crisis. It only creates further chaos by shutting the door on mechanisms that reunite families. That is what I believe. That is what I pray. That is what I think mankind is all about or should be all about, keeping people safe from perilous journeys to our borders. These attempts to sow seeds of fear and distrust about migrants are as counterproductive as they are reprehensible.

Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, the broader bill undermines Congress' bipartisan work to grant humanitarian parole to hundreds of thousands of Afghans. We have been working together on that, and we should be working together to help those who are trying to cross the border from our Western Hemisphere allies. But this also prevents and goes against thousands of Afghans, Ukrainians, and others, by restricting DHS parole authority.

If we are truly interested in a constructive agenda that is aimed at providing viable and durable solutions to migration challenges, I stand ready. Democrats stand ready to collaborate on addressing the root causes of migration through congressional action, through working on comprehensive immigration reform to try to make sure that we lead by example and we live true to our values, that we become the shining example for others in other countries who are looking at us to see how we react to it.

We should do that by showing in a bipartisan way we are ready for comprehensive immigration reform. We will do it in a bipartisan way. We will do it so that we can also maintain our values and who we are--at least who we say we are--as a nation.

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Mr. MEEKS. Kamlager-Dove), an esteemed member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Mr. DAVIS of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I rise to express concern with H.R. 2, legislation that would place at risk United States agriculture.

H.R. 2, with the E-Verify provision in particular, does not address the workforce crisis and could cause a $60 billion drop in production, resulting in a 5 to 6 percent increase in prices at the grocery store when many families across America are still struggling to make it from week to week.

We must develop real solutions to the labor crisis facing our farmers, ranchers, and growers. During a tour at Warren Farms, and speaking with farmers across eastern North Carolina, this is what they are telling me: Enough is enough. People are fed up with divided D.C. politics.

Our government must get out of the way of hardworking people. We should take H.R. 2, as drafted, off the table so our farmers can continue putting food on the table for households across this great country.

Congress' inaction to address the labor crisis will result in farmers losing their livelihoods.

I am here. I am right here to work with anyone who wants to make life better for eastern North Carolina, rural America, and the American people. We can secure the border. However, we cannot secure the border while creating so much insecurity for our farm families.

Mr. Speaker, I am standing with American farmers.

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Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

The Foreign Affairs title of this bill should be about addressing the root causes of migration; about fixing the crime, corruption, poverty, and discrimination that causes people to flee north.

The men and women coming to our borders do so reluctantly. They do not want the pain of leaving parents and children behind for an unknown time while they seek refuge in an unfamiliar land. They want to see their daughters when they come home from work, not on a video call. They want to hear their siblings' voices at the dinner table, not on a Zoom.

The way to address the root causes of migration is through aid, assistance, investment, collaboration, and rule of law guidance. If we refuse to fund such programs and efforts, we are being penny-wise and pound-foolish; ignoring our hemispheric neighbors until they are knocking on our front door. What we need to do is address the root causes.

This legislation is not in line with national security interests, our values, or our goals of curbing the migration crisis. It only exacerbates the situation on the border while reinstating the same inhumane policies that have endangered migrants. We have seen that done by the former administration. We have seen the actions. We know who he is, and we know why he put some of those policies forward.

I can't close without saying that Chairman McCaul is a good man. I work with him on the committee. We talk and we debate and we do things. I don't want this to end with anyone thinking that I don't think Mr. McCaul is a good human being. He is. We do that together. However, I do have questions.

I hear a lot of talk about President Biden and what he is doing or what his motivations are, et cetera. I, too, have questions about the policies of former President Trump. Coming from New York, I have been around a lot and seen and heard his motivations, particularly as it pertains to the bills that he put forward in regard to migration, and I know what he thinks of immigrants.

I know what the former President thinks of immigrants. Why? Because he said it. He has said things that have been shocking to me, that reveal what he thought and why he put forward the principles that he started. It is not me making it up. Over 34 times he called these immigrants who are trying to come for better lives animals. That is not how we should look at these poor individuals who are running from crises, as they are doing in Afghanistan, Ukraine, Venezuela, and other parts of Latin America.

I know because I come from New York. I have seen what he has done to his own employees and how he has treated them. I know because I heard from his own mouth, calling countries on the continent of Africa and in the Caribbean and South America ``asshole countries.'' I know because he also just wanted to put a ban on people because of their religious beliefs. I know because even after people were convicted in the Central Park 5 in New York, he still called them vicious names. I know his motivations, and that is reflective in the policies that he has passed.

That is why we should not be supporting this bill. That is not who we are as Americans. Let's fight to show the rest of the world who we really are, that we want to take care, as that statue in New York City stands with that lady holding the torch--give me your tired, your poor. That is who we became as a country, not the motivations of the former President and his policies.

This bill is a step in the wrong direction. It is in the wrong direction. Our partners in the region are watching us very closely today. I have been talking to those leaders. I have been talking to people from the various countries in Central and South America, many of whom are in my district. This is not the way to go.

Mr. Speaker, I urge the Members of this august body, let's not fall into the same mistakes of the past. Let's sit down and figure out how we can work together in a bipartisan way for a strong immigration reform bill, so we can treat humans as humans, so we can show our actions are similar to what we pray.

Whether we are in a church or a synagogue or a mosque, we pray for the poor and the helpless; we want to make a difference. We have an opportunity to do that. We have an opportunity to make sure that we keep our borders safe by dealing with the root causes of migration and treating people in a humane way, not just considering those in law enforcement, but thinking about the people. When I see their hands on the gates asking for a better life, saying all I want to do is see my child have an opportunity, and I am willing to go through whatever the process is. Let's think about them. Let's think about those images. Let's think about how we can do better.

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