Protecting Our Communities From Failure to Secure the Border Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Ms. MALLIOTAKIS. Madam Chair, I thank the chairman for yielding.

On September 15, 2023, against the strong public outcry from the local community in Brooklyn and across New York City, the lease signed by the Biden administration proposes to house at least 2,000 migrants at Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, at a monthly rent of $1.7 million.

Under the terms of the lease, the city, who will be reimbursed by the State, will pay the first 3 months up front and the city will be able to use 30 acres of land at the location. The total cost of the agreement is over $20.8 million.

According to the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, who himself has said this migrant crisis will destroy New York City, so far in fiscal year 2023, New York City has spent $1.4 billion to deal with this crisis. It is estimated that the taxpayers will be forced to pay $12 billion by 2025 if this crisis is not handled, meaning, if we do not stop the unsustainable and unsafe flow of individuals coming through our southern border.

Additionally, the mayor has said because of this crisis, he has to propose a 15 percent across-the-board cut for New York City services for our actual citizens. He wants to bring the number of cops to 1990 levels; thousands of fewer cops on our streets than we had on September 11, 2001.

We are having a hiring freeze for not just the cops, but the school safety officers. There is no difference than the left's defund the police agenda than this. This is defunding the police to pay for citizens of other countries to receive free housing and services. They are just not calling it that.

The gentleman who spoke prior on the other side of the aisle says that we have to get to the root of the problem. You are absolutely right. Our mayor, by the way, is misinterpreting the right-to-shelter decree, which is intended for homeless New Yorkers, mandating the city to house homeless New Yorkers, not citizens of other countries.

Madam Chair, if there is any question about that, we sued, and a judge on Staten Island reaffirmed what we have been saying, that the city has no obligation to house citizens of other countries, and the decree was meant for homeless New Yorkers.

However, the mayor continues to use luxury hotel rooms, crushing tourism in New York. They are using school spaces, whether they are former Catholic schools--and they have even used public school gyms and cafeterias at one point--or public and open spaces such as park land, and even assisted living facilities. They actually went so far as to kick a bunch of seniors out of assisted living facilities in my district and then turned around and made it a migrant shelter.

How is that fair for the citizens of New York?

Let's get to the root of the problem. The root of the problem is that the President of the United States chose to put in place executive orders that dismantled public safety, that took away the tools of our Customs and Border Patrol agents, that allowed for a free flow of individuals into the country, 1.7 million of them.

We don't know who they are, where they are, or what their intention is. Then the other 6-million-plus that applied for asylum, guess what, 50 percent of those cases are denied in court. People are abusing the asylum system to gain entry into this country, to be released into this country. Most don't show up to court. When they do, 50 percent of those cases are denied.

We need to go back to enforcing the laws, making sure there is a proper process in this country for people, yes, to apply for asylum.

My mother is a Cuban refugee. I support people coming to this country and applying for asylum the right way.

What is the right way? The right way is you go to the next safe country.

We have people from over 120 countries coming through the southern border. We only have two countries bordering the United States, yet we have people from 120 countries, which means the process is not being followed.

Madam Chair, I will tell you something else. This is very unfair to immigrants. I don't know if the other side understands what this President is doing. He has a ``last in, first in approach,'' which means that the people coming over the border are having their cases heard first.

So the people who have been waiting in line for years--and there is a 10-year backlog right now because of this crisis the President created--those people are not being heard and they are having their cases pushed back even further. How is that right?

Maybe you are the party that is anti-immigrant, that you are letting people who applied the right way, who came to this country the right way, to be stuck and pushed to the back of the line.

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Ms. MALLIOTAKIS. Mr. Chair, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment.

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Ms. MALLIOTAKIS. Mr. Chair, the sponsor of this amendment asked the question: Do these individuals have a legal right to apply for asylum? The answer is yes. The thing is, they are supposed to be applying from the next safe country. We have over 120 countries represented at our southern border. We are only bordered by two. Therefore, they are not following the process and are coming illegally.

The cartels are the ones benefiting from the current process as it is. I hope the other side understands that these individuals, every single one of them, are paying the cartels thousands of dollars to be trafficked into the United States. That money is then used to continue to pump fentanyl into the United States, killing Americans. Let's stop bankrolling the drug cartels that are profiting from this human trafficking.

Next, let me point out that this process is not safe for anyone--not the migrants, either. That is why I don't understand why my colleagues want to continue to encourage people, instead of applying from the next safe country, to take this treacherous journey at the hands of the drug cartels.

By the way, my colleague Tony Gonzales, who represents Eagle Pass, just told me that 14 individuals drowned this Thanksgiving weekend alone in Eagle Pass.

We have the Doctors Without Borders report that says in Panama alone, in just 1 month, hundreds of women and children were raped. We know that is a common occurrence, so why are we encouraging people to take that treacherous journey instead of applying from the next safe country?

Lastly, Floyd Bennett Field, it was mentioned that it was unsafe, as indicated in the lawsuit brought by the councilwoman and others. I am a party to that lawsuit. It floods. There was no NEPA process. All of a sudden, my colleagues on the other side don't want to conduct a full, thorough NEPA environmental impact statement as required by law.

Why did they bypass that? If they didn't, they would know that it is a flood zone and unsafe for people to be living there.

Mr. Chair, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Westerman).

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Ms. MALLIOTAKIS. Mr. Chair, the bottom line here is that we need to secure the border. We passed H.R. 2, which can stem this unsustainable flow. Unfortunately, a lot of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle voted against H.R. 2. That is the real solution. We need to secure our border.

Let's revert to the policies that were working previous to Joe Biden dismantling our border and making it open. It is unsafe and unsustainable for both American citizens as well as the individuals who are taking the treacherous journey at the hands of the drug cartels, which are profiting off of this human trafficking. Our government should not allow it to continue.

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

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