Denouncing the Biden Administration's Immigration Policies
Floor Speech
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Ms. BARRAGAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Jayapal for being a leader in this space.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to oppose yet another anti-immigrant resolution from House Republicans.
It is Republicans who refuse to vote for additional resources to address challenges at the southern border and, instead, spend their time on empty messaging resolutions such as this.
Worse yet, they continue to lie. Just take a look at the resolution. This resolution says that the Biden administration suspended and terminated asylum cooperative agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras established by the previous administration.
The fact is two of these agreements were never implemented by the previous administration, and one was paused at the start of COVID, the pandemic.
The resolution says the Biden administration has refused to use its authority to detain inadmissible migrants.
The resolution claims the Biden administration is intentionally not enforcing the mandatory detention requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The fact is that no administration, including the Trump administration, has fully complied with this Act because no Congress has ever provided the funds and the previous administration never even asked for the funding that would have come close to having this mandatory detention for all. That is something I don't even agree with, yet even the prior administration didn't do that.
Now, this administration, the Biden administration, is actually detaining migrants. The fact is the Biden administration is detaining approximately 39,000 inadmissible migrants.
The resolution also says the Biden administration has the authority to use expedited removal and is refusing to use expedited removal. Again, that is not true.
Let's look at the facts. The Biden administration has expanded expedited removal to remove hundreds of thousands of people.
Our point today is this just goes to show you, Mr. Speaker, Republicans are not serious about the border. If they were serious, then they would stick to the facts and they would stick to solutions. This resolution is not about solutions. It is all about politics.
They have consistently opposed legislation to increase funding to address the needs at the southern border. It is Republicans who refuse to consider President Biden's $13.6 billion funding at the border.
Let me talk about some of what is in that. Republicans refused to give $850 million to combat fentanyl from crossing the southern border. It is Republicans who refuse to consider $723 million to hire additional Customs and Border Protection officers and Border Patrol agents.
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Ms. BARRAGAN. Mr. Speaker, Republicans refuse even to consider $1 billion in ICE detention beds, something I don't even agree with. They refused money to put new fentanyl detection technology at the ports of entry. It is Republicans who have said no to all of this.
Then the Biden administration helped craft a punitive, conservative, bipartisan Senate immigration bill that I don't even support.
House Republicans said no before the ink was dry.
Why?
It is because Donald Trump called and said: Don't consider it. We don't want to do anything at all. I need a campaign issue.
That is what this is about. Time and time again, Republicans have had a chance to do something. They failed to act every time. They mislead, they fearmonger, and they demonize immigrants and try to convince the American people that they are not responsible for their own failures to act. Democrats are rejecting these tactics and this dishonest resolution.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''
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