Secure the Border Act of 2023

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, on Inauguration Day, our border was secure. The Trump policies had slowed illegal immigration to a trickle. That afternoon, Joe Biden reversed these policies, and in the last 27 months the Democrats have deliberately admitted into our country more than 2.1 million illegal aliens.

Now that is larger than the entire population of the State of Nebraska, and while the Border Patrol was overwhelmed, more than 1\1/2\ million known got-aways entered as well. That is an additional population larger than that of Hawaii. All of this occurred in 27 months.

As we can see at this very moment, this was only a prelude to the mass invasion now unfolding before our eyes. The Border Patrol Union warned us yesterday: ``Field reports from agents across the southern border verify the enormity of this tidal wave of illegal aliens coming now. Huge groups are overwhelming stations, and it is completely out of control. Massive releases beginning and it's going to get much worse.''

Now for Americans, this means classrooms packed with non-English speaking students, hospitals flooded with illegals demanding uncompensated care, violent criminal cartels and gangs introduced into our communities, fentanyl killing an average of 300 Americans every day, suppressed wages for working Americans, and the collapse of the social safety net that was supposed to take care of Americans in need.

For the millions of illegal migrants, it means exposure to hazardous conditions that have claimed 2,000 lives that we know of. Many arrive sick, traumatized, starved, brutalized, raped, and deeply in debt to the cartels.

These are not asylum seekers. Asylum is a specific refuge for those singled out by their government for persecution because of race, religion, or political beliefs. Asylum is achieved by crossing the first international border that separates you from that government. Asylum is not an open invitation to bum-rush our borders, but the Democrats have made it precisely that.

If you make a fraudulent asylum claim, you are now guaranteed to receive immediate admission into our country, you get cash, a range of free goods and services, indefinite residency, and indefinite work authorizations. Then, when your claim is ultimately rejected by a clogged court system years in the future, you will not be deported, and you only need to wait for the next amnesty.

This makes a mockery of legitimate asylum, the sovereignty of our Nation, and the rule of law. Our bill removes the incentives to break our laws by reinforcing the existing requirement that forbids releasing asylum claimants into the country until their claim is resolved.

This bill also returns unaccompanied minors safely home as we already do with children from Mexico or Canada, but this administration sends all other children to poorly vetted so-called sponsors in this country with little concern or follow-up over the conditions into which we have abandoned them. Many become indentured servants, slaves to the cartels and their gangs, forced into sex trafficking, labor trafficking, and drug trafficking under horrific conditions.

The only way to stop this trafficking is to return these children safely home. The cartels are paid thousands of dollars to bring them to the United States, and that will stop the moment we return these children to their homes. Every Border Patrol agent I have talked to tells me that this is the only way to stop this heartbreaking tragedy.

For those crossing as families, this measure keeps them together. It allows them to make their asylum claim and then to wait in Mexico or in a family residential center until their claim is heard.

This measure removes the incentives for cartels to traffic children to pose as families in order to be automatically released into our country as the Democrats are doing.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Biggs, Mr. Roy, Mr. Calvert, Mr. Carter of Texas, Mr. Johnson of Louisiana, Mr. Tiffany, and Mr. Moran for their work that comprises the judiciary section of this bill and my thanks to the many Members who helped craft it into its current form.

Yes, we are a nation of immigrants. We are also a nation of laws. Millions of immigrants come to our country legally every year. They obey our laws. They wait patiently. They do everything our country asks of them. Meanwhile, millions of illegal immigrants are cutting in line in front of them aided, abetted, encouraged, and rewarded by Democrat officials.

It has been said that this bill has no chance in the Senate and if it did pass that it would be vetoed by the President. Well, that is a question that the American people must ultimately decide before it is too late.

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Lee).

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Moore).

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Diaz-Balart), the sponsor of H.R. 2.

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Hageman).

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time I have remaining?

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Mr. McCLINTOCK.

Mr. VAN DREW. I think we all know that we are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of the rule of law. As President Reagan once said years ago, ``A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation.'' We are very rapidly moving there.

At this very moment, we don't have control of our southern border. Tens of thousands of migrants are marching, waiting, and illegally crossing our borders every day with tens of thousands more well on their way.

We are witnessing one of the worst humanitarian crises in the history of our Nation. Migrants are dying from starvation, from disease, from lack of water. Women and children are being trafficked and they are being abused.

Our administration knew this was coming, yet they have no plan.

How irresponsible is that?

With title 42 set to expire tonight and no concrete plan in place to handle this situation, we are facing a crisis of epic proportions. This crisis will result in communities suffering, migrants suffering, and our Nation suffering, but it isn't too late. It still isn't too late.

We can secure our borders and we can protect our citizens. It will take leadership and a willingness to reject talking points and a willingness to do what is best for our Nation and for our people, and right now it is the House Republicans who are standing up and they are the ones making the effort.

This bill restarts the border wall. It hires more CBP agents. It ends incentives to abuse unaccompanied minors. It ends catch and release. It reinstates the remain in Mexico policy.

We need action from our leaders, real leaders. We need action from our elected officials and actions from those who have the power to make a difference.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California for bringing this forward.

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to the time remaining.

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. McCLINTOCK.

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I am ready to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, we know how to secure our borders and protect our country. We had done so under the Trump administration. The remain in Mexico policy slowed illegal immigration and phony asylum claims to a trickle. The border wall was nearing completion. ICE was actually enforcing court-ordered deportations.

All of that changed when the Democrats seized control of our government and reversed all of these policies, and the result we can now see all around us. It is affecting our schools, hospitals, law enforcement, working families' wages, and social services that are now strained to the breaking point and soon beyond the breaking point.

This bill simply restores those policies that worked and makes it more difficult for a future President to refuse to faithfully execute the laws.

I ask the American people to watch the catastrophe that is unfolding right now on our collapsing southern border. What we are seeing is something historic. It is a mass, illegal migration on a scale the world has never seen and that no civilization has ever survived.

At this hour, history is screaming this warning at us that countries that cannot or will not protect their borders simply aren't around very long.

Without enforcing our immigration laws, we have no immigration laws. Without immigration laws, we have no borders. Without borders, we have no country.

Let that not be the epitaph of the American Republic, what Lincoln called ``the last best hope'' of mankind on this Earth.

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