Denouncing the Biden Administration's Open-Borders Policies, Condemning the National Security and Public Safety Crisis Along the Southwest Border, and Urging President Biden to End His Administration's Open- Borders Policies

Floor Speech

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Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 969, I call up the resolution (H. Res. 957) denouncing the Biden administration's open-borders policies, condemning the national security and public safety crisis along the southwest border, and urging President Biden to end his administration's open-borders policies, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

The Clerk read the title of the resolution.

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Mr. MORAN. Res. 957.
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Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I stand today in support of H. Res. 957, denouncing the Biden administration's open-borders policies, condemning the national security and public safety crisis along the southwestern border, and urging President Biden to end his administration's open- borders policies.

Mr. Speaker, we have a problem at our southern border. I represent the First District of Texas, which is a rural district located in northeast Texas comprised of 17 counties. It borders Louisiana and Arkansas, and although it is not physically adjacent to the southern border, my district is directly impacted by the open-border policies of the Biden administration, as is every corner of America today.

The text of my proposed House resolution is simple, straightforward, and to the point. It denounces the Biden administration's open-border policies, condemns the national security and public safety crisis caused by these policies, and urges President Biden to end them immediately.

Mr. Speaker, why do we need to actually have this resolution in the House today? I will tell you, Mr. Speaker. It is for two primary reasons. One is because we need to admit that there is a problem. This House needs to admit that there is a problem on the border. Number two, we need to identify the source of the problem itself. Why do we have open borders? It is because of the policies of this administration.

Those two things today, to admit and to identify, will help lead us to a solution from this House body and across the three branches of government.

The border numbers do not lie. In fact, they tell a clear story about the depth of the crisis and the proximate cause rooted in the Biden administration policies.

Consider that the total number of illegal aliens encountered along the southern border since President Biden took office exceeds 7 million. At the same time, the Biden administration has released at least 3.3 million of those illegal aliens into the interior of the United States. This number is larger than the entire population of States like Nevada, Arkansas, and Kansas. In fact, it exceeds the combined populations of Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, and North Dakota together.

Additionally, more than 1.7 million got-aways and an untold number of unknown illegal got-aways have successfully evaded capture by the U.S. Border Patrol along the southwestern border.

Mr. Speaker, 312 illegal aliens on the Terrorist Screening Dataset were encountered along the southwestern border since President Biden took office. By contrast, consider that during the 4 years of the prior administration, only 11 illegal aliens on that same list were encountered by Border Patrol.

If we look just at the last quarter, we see how depraved the situation is on the southwestern border. More than 785,000 migrant encounters have been reported just since the beginning of this fiscal year, and last month's record high, the first time ever in American history, was 300,000-plus encounters along the southwestern border.

In fiscal year 2023, 27,000 pounds of fentanyl were seized at the southern border. This is almost double what fiscal year 2022 brought at 14,700 pounds, and it is six times higher than in fiscal year 2020.

We have seen more than 150,000 unaccompanied minors cross over the U.S.-Mexico border, and reports indicate that we have lost contact with over 85,000 of those unaccompanied children.

It used to be that most of the migrants who were coming up to our southern border were from Mexico, but now the landscape has changed. In fiscal year 2022, migrants from Mexico crossing illegally made up just 33 percent. Now, individuals are coming from across the world, more than 150 countries, and many of those countries have direct ties with terrorism.

When I was down at Eagle Pass on the border several months ago, we were told that there were at least 27 countries with ties to terrorism that had immigrants come across that southern border who were encountered in the last couple of years. How astounding and how problematic for this country.

Despite the authority that the President has to fix these issues, he simply will not do it. What policies are we talking about? The current administration has ended the Migrant Protection Protocols and the remain in Mexico policy. We are told by border security people that if we reinstate just remain in Mexico, that could end up to 70 percent of the encounters that we see coming across the border.

The administration also has reinstated catch-and-release policies. They have suspended asylum cooperative agreements with other nations, such as El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. They have ignored existing restraints on the abuse of parole. They have halted necessary border wall construction. They have undermined the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's core mission by preventing them from deporting certain aliens who violate U.S. law. They have enabled use of smartphone apps to facilitate the release of border crossers into the United States. Moreover, they have redirected Customs and Border Patrol agents to do ICE paperwork processing instead of focusing on law enforcement work.

In short, the current administration's policies have led to the numbers that we are seeing today, numbers like 2.5 million just in the last fiscal year, 2.3 million in the year before, and 1.74 million in the year before compared to numbers like 400,000 or 500,000 per year under the prior administration.

One is too many, but 2.5 million is egregious. It has led to situations like overcrowded classrooms and children trafficked to do work in industries unsuited for children--unsuited for anybody; millions of dollars in unpaid medical bills in hospitals across the U.S., which overwhelm first responders in border communities; homeless veterans who are getting kicked out of shelters in favor of illegal aliens; and even the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans by fentanyl.

Because of the increased fentanyl crisis, these effects are being felt in rural and metropolitan communities in both blue and red States.

As of the beginning of December, the city of Denver had spent over $33 million to house, feed, and educate around 30,000 illegal aliens. Chicago residents are up in arms, as well, as are New York City residents. Their mayor says that this crisis will destroy the city.

In 2022, here is the number I was citing for you just a second ago-- 73,654 people died from fentanyl overdose in the U.S. This is more than double the amount of deaths in 2019 and the highest in American history.

Assaults on Border Patrol agents doubled just last year. Nevertheless, the Biden administration is doubling down on these open- border policies.

What will it take for them to wake up?

What will it take for us to find a solution for the border crisis?

There is a lot to be done. There are lots that can be done by this body and the Senate and across this government, but it starts with leadership in the White House, policy leadership in the White House to undo the current open-border policies and to return to the policies that were preventing this crisis before.

Mr. Speaker, H. Res. 957 denounces these open-border policies, condemns the national security and public crisis that we are seeing today because of that, and urges the President to end those policies immediately. The people of America deserve better. They deserve to have the sovereignty and the geographic borders of this Nation protected.

Mr. VAN DREW. Mr. Speaker, a nation without borders is not a nation at all.

Currently, we have an administration that prioritizes illegal immigrants over American citizens, over our own constituents.

Since President Biden took office, more than 8 million illegal immigrants have entered our country without consequence; 300,000 since December alone. Within months, there will be more illegal immigrants than the population of my home State of New Jersey, a State that would rank tenth in population made up of illegals.

Yet, this President, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and my Democratic colleagues continue to deny that the crisis even exists, allowing millions of illegal immigrants, many from countries that hate America, threatens our national security, and it is wrong.

Using taxpayer dollars to give illegal immigrants free healthcare and making Americans pay for it is wrong.

Sacrificing the education of our American children to turn their schools into shelters for illegal immigrants is wrong.

Cutting public safety funding to pay for services like free housing, free legal aid, and welfare for illegal immigrants that many Americans struggle to afford themselves is wrong.

College education subsidies for illegal immigrants is wrong.

Those on the terror watch list slipping through our borders is wrong.

Sanctuary State status, sanctuary city status is wrong.

Standing idly by while tens of thousands of Americans, American young people, die at the hands of illicit fentanyl that is flowing freely across our border is wrong.

President Biden and this administration have had the power to stop it, but they refuse. Our Democratic colleagues had a chance to stop it by voting for H.R. 2, but they refused.

Four years ago this didn't exist, and now our Senate colleagues have refused to take up H.R. 2 and are working to increase incentives for illegal immigrants to come into our country.

We need to get serious. Those responsible must be held accountable, and once again I demand that this administration, for once, put American people first.

I hope and I pray that everyone will vote for this good resolution.

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Mr. MORAN. Van Duyne).

Ms. VAN DUYNE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my Texas colleague's resolution condemning the purposeful actions of the Biden administration and Secretary Mayorkas for turning over our Nation's security and southern border to Mexican cartels and ushering in a vast tsunami of over 10 million illegal immigrants, who are overwhelming our cities and our States.

Ten million illegal immigrants have come here illegally, yet my Democratic colleagues insist the border is closed, nothing to see here.

Indeed, the Biden administration has enabled a horrific new era of human slavery, forced labor, and child sex trafficking that is destroying the lives of tens of thousands of people and causing crime to escalate across America, all because they refuse to enforce our laws that are already written.

This isn't about creating a whole new immigration process. This is about forcing the administration and agencies to do their jobs.

Democrats admit that the President's additional funding request isn't about securing the border or national security, but it is about processing illegals faster into the country.

With more than 100,000 dead Americans from Chinese-supplied and Mexican cartel-trafficked fentanyl into our country, we need to understand that we are at war.

The Biden administration has gleefully brought this misery and destruction to the American people. The first job of the Federal Government is to protect our rights and protect our homeland. Unfortunately, under the Biden administration's disgraceful and dangerous actions, the American people are less safe. We face a national security catastrophe, and the leftists running the White House could not care less.

All of Congress should stand up for the American people, stand up for truly secure borders, and empower Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the brave men and women of our Border Patrol to do their jobs, lock down the border, and fight the Mexican cartels. This is what Americans want, and this is what Americans deserve.

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Mr. MORAN. Hageman).

Mr. Speaker, these are some of the things that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have said today.

The border is not open. Mr. Correa, Ms. Jackson Lee, and Mr. Nadler all said that.

Ms. Jayapal said: ``They don't want a solution.''

Mr. Correa also said that we need more resources.

In fact, that was one of the mantras throughout the debate today from the other side of the aisle: more resources, more resources, more resources.

Let me just tell you, funding is not the issue. Funding is at an all- time high for our border protection. Despite border protection funding being at an all-time high, we are seeing record-high encounters at the border.

Why is that? There is one reason for that. It is the administration's current policies.

I have provided this analogy several times to individuals over the months leading up to this debate: When I was being elected, I had a flood at my house. I came home one night, and there was water all over the floor in my house.

My first reaction was not to stand there and say that I needed to go get a bunch of moppers to come in and mop up the water that is there. My first reaction was to find where the water leak was and turn off the valve to shut off the flood.

Mr. Speaker, that is exactly what we need to do. That is what this resolution re-sounds the alarm about. We have been talking about this for years on this side of the aisle. Apparently, both sides of the aisle are not getting the message.

This resolution helps us to admit that there is a problem. It helps us identify the cause and solve it.

Mr. Speaker, if the other side of the aisle was in charge of the flood at my house, they would say: Well, let's just let the flood continue and hire a bunch more moppers to come in to try to clean it up.

That is simply not the solution. You have to turn that valve off first. You have to stop the incursion of water. In this case, you have to stop the incursion of migrants coming across our border illegally.

It is a matter of the rule of law. It is a matter of the sovereignty of the United States. It is a matter of enforcing those laws that are on the books today and, frankly, a matter of the will of the administration to put back in place those policies that were working before 2021 began.

Mr. Speaker, I am astounded by the fact that even today we are hearing over and over again from the other side of the aisle that the border is not open. I urge my colleagues to go visit. Having been in Eagle Pass and El Paso, I can tell you that it is casual. That is the word I would use for it. Watching people, myself, coming across the border casually and then taken right to a processing center, and before you know it, out into the interior of the United States to who knows where and who knows when to be found again and who knows what they are going to do in our midst.

Mr. Speaker, we are seeing a rise of terrorism across this world. To allow our southern border to have the porous nature it does presently puts our Nation at risk. It is a national security issue that must be solved. We must have the will to do it.

Frankly, the Republicans have already proposed the right solution: H.R. 2.

Mr. Speaker, I was proud to be one of the original eight cosponsors of H.R. 2, and we need to pass that in its entirety.

We certainly need to work with Senate Democrats and Republicans and the administration to get that done, but before that happens and for the last 3 years what should have been happening is that the administration should have enforced the policies that the prior administration had in place to solve the problem once and for all to get us to a place where we can, in fact, have our sovereignty restored, our geographic borders protected, and the interior of the United States protected.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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