Crisis At the Southern Border

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. MALLIOTAKIS. Mr. Speaker, my parents came to this country as immigrants. Many of my constituents came to this country as immigrants. I think fundamentally Republicans and Democrats agree that we are a Nation of immigrants. Yet, what we are seeing currently at our southern border is a travesty. It is not helpful to the migrants, it is not helpful to our Nation, and it has certainly created so many problems that we are facing right now.

We have seen over 5 million illegal crossings at the southern border, another 1.3 million got-aways. CBP has seized 14,000 pounds of fentanyl at our southern border, enough to kill over 3.1 billion people.

In 2021, more than 71,000 individuals died from synthetic opioid overdoses, and this is roughly 200 people every day. In my city of New York, we have seen overdoses skyrocket since Joe Biden put in place his open border policy, 2,700 in his first year alone. That is the highest in decades. We are seeing fatal overdoses in New York City, on average, every 3 hours. A couple weeks ago, we saw a 16-month-old baby in my district overdose from fentanyl, as well.

The only people that are truly benefiting from this policy are the cartels that are making $13 billion a year from human and drug smuggling.

We also need to be concerned about who is attempting and is entering our country. In the first 6 months of fiscal year 2023, 80 people on the terrorist watch list were stopped attempting to cross the southern border on top of 98 last year. That is more than the previous 5 years combined.

We can say that we want to support immigration, but it must be legal immigration.

This is completely unsustainable, it is dangerous, and that is why I stand before you to ask in a bipartisan manner that we get behind H.R. 2 and vote to pass it today and that Senator Schumer brings it for a vote in the Senate.

In New York City, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is now saying that they are fully booked through October 2032 because two-thirds, at least, of the individuals crossing into our country claiming asylum do not qualify, and they are clogging up the system for those who truly are eligible for asylum.

We have seen 60,000-plus migrants come to New York City since last spring. Remember, they have crossed and they entered our country not by the proper channels but by crossing our southern border, and Joe Biden has allowed them to do it.

Our mayor is spending billions of dollars to house these individuals in city hotels. At the same time, he is saying we are going to cut city services by a billion dollars every year for the next 4 years, and we are going to cut everything from libraries to programs for our children, fire, sanitation, parks, and homeless services. We have homeless New Yorkers, and the mayor is saying that he has to put citizens of other countries in shelters instead of our own. It is just completely backward and unsustainable.

As I walked here today, I just got notice that the mayor decided to halt this ridiculous policy. He was basing all of this, by the way, on a right-to-shelter law under Mayor Ed Koch that was meant for homeless New Yorkers. He has abused that, and that is what we are seeing take place today.

We can work to address this issue. Let's protect the taxpayers. Let's protect our Nation's security. Let's put forward the border security plan that is before us today, and then let's also work to make sure that we know who is entering in and out of our country through proper visas, employer visas, family-sponsored visas. I am willing to work with everybody on that, as well. We must stem the flow. Let's stop putting the drug cartels before American citizens, and let's move forward today and pass this bill.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source