Secure the Border Act of 2023

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CARTER of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act.

House Republicans are fulfilling the promises to restore safety and security at our borders, furthering the goals outlined in the House Republican Commitment to America.

Included in this border package is my bill, the Protection of Children Act. We know that human traffickers, cartels, and coyotes exploit children in order to line their pockets and then abandon them at the border. These children are then subject to a very slow-moving bureaucratic system, all the while being separated from their families.

My Protection of Children Act gives these children a choice and closes loopholes to end the exploitation of children.

By returning these children to their own country quickly and safely, we prevent these children from experiencing the further trauma of detention and being released to potential strangers and a long, drawn- out adjudication process.

I thank Representative Biggs and Representative Nehls for cosponsoring my Protection of Children Act. I thank the House Homeland Security, Judiciary, and Foreign Affairs Committees for what they have done on this legislation.

I would like to point out something. When I was the chairman of the Appropriations Committee's Homeland Security Subcommittee, I was in Laredo in 2014 at the bus station. There were 700 people waiting to go somewhere. They told me two people spoke Spanish or English. None of the children spoke Spanish or English. They were going to be released into this country once they left Laredo with no one to help them.

We should make this thing right and do the right thing. I asked about the kids, and they said to send them back where they came from. That is how this bill got started.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source