Issues of the Day
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for allowing me to join tonight to talk about this crisis at our southern border.
Mr. Good, when you talk about how many got-aways we have right now in this country, how many individuals on the terror watch list, it is about 300 since Biden took office.
To give the American people some context, I know that number under the last administration was under 20. I believe it was about 14 people who were encountered on the southern border that were on the terrorist watch list.
That is something that really piques my interest because like a lot of Americans who are still alive today and have jobs, families, who love this country, 9/11 changed my life.
I dropped out of school my senior year and joined the Navy the week after 9/11. I remind Americans it only took 19 people to perpetrate those acts on 9/11.
When you are talking about this amount of numbers, this invasion--I hate to say it. I hate to sound like an alarmist, but as somebody who considers myself a sheepdog, somebody who considers myself the type of individual who wants to protect other people--and we have other sheepdogs around this Capitol right now. There are some in the balcony. There are some out there.
We know what this is going to lead to. I hate to say it, but I am going to say it because Americans need to know. It is not a question of if. It is a question of when.
It breaks my heart, but it enrages me at the same time because Americans deserve better. They deserve leadership. They deserve a government that puts their safety and security as a top priority. We are not--I repeat, we are not--doing that.
It is one of the reasons right now in the Homeland Security Committee that we are working on impeaching Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
I hope it is something that we are actually able to conclude this time, even though a couple of weeks ago we tried that in this very Chamber, and eight Republicans voted against it.
It is imperative that we do that, not because we are going to get a better replacement. It is imperative that we do that because the American people are watching.
They are sick and tired of this place. They are sick and tired of the politicians here. One of the biggest reasons they are sick and tired of it is because nobody ever gets held accountable.
It has been a long time since a Cabinet Secretary was impeached. I am not sure it has ever even happened.
Mr. Biggs, has that ever even happened?
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. CRANE. There have been a lot of historic things that have happened in this Congress, Mr. Biggs, and I am hoping that the impeachment of a Cabinet Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, is one of the next things that happens because I want the American people to know that there is not one set of rules for them and one set of rules for the people up there. They know for a fact they could not come up here and do the exact opposite of what their job description was.
Look at his job title: Secretary of Homeland Security. I don't know about you. I am not an English major, but that would make me believe, Mr. Perry, that his job might be to protect the homeland.
What do you think about that?
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. CRANE. But, Congressman Biggs, it is an election year. We couldn't possibly disrupt things because it is an election year, right? That was one of the arguments I heard today why we can't do anything about the border--it is an election year, and there are politics on the line.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source