Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Ms. MALLIOTAKIS. Mr. Chair, my amendment would prohibit any funding from being used by the National Park Service to enact the terms of the lease to house migrants at Floyd Bennett Field in the Gateway National Recreation Area in Brooklyn, New York, where our Mayor Eric Adams, has setup a tent city for over 2,000 migrants with little supervision. Turning our Federal parks into encampments for un-vetted migrants from all over the world is unsafe, and it is unfair to the surrounding communities and the taxpayers being forced to foot the bill.

There have already been dozens of arrests at existing shelters in New York City, stabbings, DUIs, and other horrific incidents. And it is wrong that our mayor continues to misinterpret New York City's right to shelter decree, which was intended for homeless New Yorkers, not citizens of other countries.

Today, as a matter a fact, there is a group of big city Democrat mayors here in Washington, including Mayor Adams, scheduled to meet with the White House for what I assume is a request for more money to add more shelters and more encampments through our cities.

Mr. Chairman, President Biden and congressional Democrats in Congress have no intention to stop the flow of migrants at our border. And Congress cannot and will not continue to fund this insanity.

I urge my colleagues to support my amendment since the Senate refuses to pass our H.R. 2 bill, which would provide border security and stop this unsustainable and unsafe flow.

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Ms. MALLIOTAKIS. Mr. Chair, I will respond by saying that we are a welcoming nation. We are a welcoming city. My parents are immigrants, as well.

However, nobody was required to pay for their housing--my parents did not move into a park that the mayor created to be an encampment--taking that away from the taxpayers.

I simply say that we need to have individuals who want to come to this country follow the rules, follow the law, and that is the big difference here. The President has created a crisis. It is of his own making with his open border policies.

You mention war-torn countries, but there are over 120 different countries that are being represented, not to mention it is just completely unsustainable. I am not just talking about the 6 million that you mentioned that applied for asylum. I am sure you know that more than half of those asylum cases were denied in court. I think that is an important thing to point out, which means that they are abusing the asylum process to gain entry into our country.

My office, in particular, has helped nearly 100 people become U.S. citizens. I am very proud of that. It may be more than anybody else in this Chamber, quite frankly. We did it for the people who followed the rules, did everything right, have been waiting in line and unfortunately, got stuck in our bureaucracy because now they are being shoved to the back of the line because, as you know, those individuals coming over the border are taken up first before anybody else, which is completely unfair to those who have come here legally.

Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Gosar).

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Ms. MALLIOTAKIS. Mr. Chair, may I inquire as to the time remaining.

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Ms. MALLIOTAKIS. Mr. Chair, I would just add that the gentleman made a good point in saying that there has been significant flooding at this particular site. If you care about migrants and care about their safety, there was nearly a foot of water following the recent rainstorms at this site. I don't know how you expect to have these tents set up and people living in that condition. That is number one. Number two, there is also a fire safety issue. Even the legal aid society, by the way, has come out against this particular encampment because they don't feel that it is safe for the inhabitants.

The other point that was brought up about the NEPA process is a very important one. I always hear my colleagues on the other side talk about protecting the environment, yet they are turning a blind eye right now to when the environmental review process is not being fulfilled. There wasn't an environmental assessment. There wasn't anything done to evaluate this, which is why they probably didn't know that such flooding would exist.

Once again, it is unsafe for everybody involved. It is not the responsibility of the taxpayer. It is going to cost them $15 billion to have these encampments. We shouldn't be doing this. Let's pass H.R. 2 and secure our border.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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