Policy Solutions to the Border Crisis

Floor Speech

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Mr. JOYCE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank the vice chairman for yielding to me.

Mr. Speaker, last week, I joined the largest congressional delegation in history to visit our southern border. What we saw is absolutely alarming. It is alarming to me personally and will be alarming to every American. We saw a Border Patrol station that has been under constant siege for months. We saw a community in Eagle Pass dealing with the strain of over 300,000 migrants crossing the border in the past 30 days. We saw an emboldened cartel that continues to smuggle drugs and human trafficking into every community in America.

Speaking to Border Patrol agents and local sheriffs, it is clear that President Biden's open border policies have led to this national security crisis.

In the past 3 years, we have seen the number of attempted entries by individuals on the terrorist watch list skyrocket to over 100 a year with 1.5 million got-aways reported by the Border Patrol. That number is surely larger. We have seen an increase in drug smuggling with substances like fentanyl, methamphetamine, and heroin entering our Nation at record levels.

Moreover, we have seen reports of public schools being used as holding facilities for migrants instead of being used for American students who are already suffering from historic learning losses after the COVID pandemic.

All of this amounts to a pattern of failure brought on by the Biden administration's refusal to address the border crisis head-on.

Half measures will not keep Americans safe. It is time for the Senate to pass H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, and begin working in good faith to protect our communities.

For far too long, my constituents have been poisoned by fentanyl analogs that are created in China, made into pills in Mexico, and brought into the United States through an open southern border.

It is time to enforce our laws. It is time to reinstate the remain in Mexico policy. It is time to give Border Patrol agents the tools and the resources that they need to protect our border and to protect the sovereignty of our country. It is time to secure our Nation.

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