Secure the Border Act of 2023
Floor Speech
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Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, there has been so much misinformation here on the floor today, I think we have got to set the facts straight here.
It is clear that providing refuge for individuals fleeing persecution has been a central tenet of U.S. immigration law for decades. The asylum process itself is a testament to America's history as a beacon of hope, freedom, and opportunity for millions around the world.
However, here is the deal: Unfortunately, drug cartels, activist judges, human smuggling operations, the open borders lobby, and radical liberal administrations have worked in tandem to undermine that system, to undermine the integrity of the U.S. immigration system itself, and in the process they have weakened protections for those who are truly seeking a safe haven from persecution by forcing them into a yearslong line in immigration court.
Look, we all agree that the current asylum system is in desperate need of repair, and the Secure the Border Act provides the necessary tools to fix it.
We are hearing all kinds of fearmongering today from the other side. It is not a surprise. There will be hand-wringing and name-calling. We hear these accusations that Republicans are anti-immigrant and inhumane. We hear grandiose pronouncements that the Democrats are pro- immigrant and pro-humanitarian values, but all of this is to try their best to distract the American people from what they are seeing with their own eyes. The chaos at the border is intentional. It is designed by this administration, Mayorkas, and Biden himself.
To my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, I ask you, what is humane about a human smuggler abandoning a 1-year-old child in a diaper at the U.S.-Mexico border?
What pro-immigrant policy is pursued with aliens suffocating to death in tractor-trailers and freight train cars?
What are the humanitarian principles behind policies that encourage child trafficking, sexual exploitation, and violence directed toward some of society's most vulnerable people?
If you are going to be pro-immigrant and support humanitarian values, you have to fix these problems, and that is what we are trying to do here today.
Being pro-immigrant and supporting humanitarian values does not mean maintaining the disastrous status quo because all that is going to do is give us more death, more exploitation, more real tangible harm to aliens and citizens alike.
Mr. Speaker, we live in the greatest country in the history of the world; it is not even close. We are the most benevolent people in the history of the world. We have a rich history of an asylum program, protecting people who need it, but we have to fix this. These frivolous asylum claims are creating backlogs in the courts.
I drafted the Asylum Reform and Border Protection Act. It is a big chunk of this immigration package today. We are trying to fix this so that we can do our duty as the humanitarian people that we are.
Our bill necessarily codifies key terms; it makes uniform interpretations regardless of geography; and it reserves asylum for the people who truly need it. Our bill will prevent this flood of frivolous asylum applications that are running rampant and close the loopholes.
Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support the Secure the Border Act. Our country's stability, sovereignty, and security depend upon this. The stakes could not be any higher.
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