Denouncing the Biden Administration's Immigration Policies

Floor Speech

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Mr. FRY. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1071, I call up the resolution (H. Res. 1065) denouncing the Biden administration's immigration policies, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

The Clerk read the title of the resolution.

Mr. Speaker, just over 3 years ago, Joe Biden took office as President of the United States and he immediately began upholding his campaign promises to reverse the Trump administration's immigration policies.

On day one, this President issued executive orders that sent the world a message that America's borders are open. He used his executive authority to stop border wall construction, rescind the remain in Mexico policy, prevent the removal of any illegal aliens, and block ICE and CBP from enforcing immigration laws.

In the weeks and months that followed, President Biden terminated Trump-era policies aimed at preventing fraudulent asylum claims, ending catch and release, increasing criminal alien removals, and preventing illegal immigration.

After all, if Trump did it, it must be bad.

Madam Speaker, what was the result of Biden's radical and dangerous systematic dismantling of policies that worked to reduce and prevent illegal immigration?

The biggest mass illegal immigration in the history of the United States.

Nearly 7.5 million illegal aliens have been encountered by the Customs and Border Patrol on the southwest border. There have been 37 straight months of 100,000 southwest border CBP encounters.

The Biden administration has released more than 4.5 million illegal aliens into American communities, in addition to at least 1.8 million known got-aways avoiding apprehension.

At least 340 illegal aliens on the terrorist watch list have been encountered by Border Patrol along the southwest border, and that is just the ones we know about.

I haven't even mentioned the northern border, where historically high numbers of illegal aliens are encountered by CBP every single day.

Who could have predicted those results?

Well, for starters, the Trump administration officials did. House Republicans did. The American people did. Sheriffs, CBP, DHS employees did; ranchers, farmers, families, they all did.

They warned the Biden transition team not to rescind policies like the migrant protection protocols in title 42, but politics trumped common sense, and the American people are left with a national security, public safety, and financial disaster that is the Biden administration's immigration agenda.

After 3 years of chaos, the Biden administration seems to have finally gotten the message that Americans get uneasy when they see mobs of illegal aliens beating up New York City police officers, watch endless numbers of illegal aliens stream across the southwest border, and hear the heart-wrenching details of murders, like that of 22-year- old nursing student Laken Riley, by illegal aliens who should not have been here in the first place.

With an election on the horizon, President Biden's handlers have decided that now is the time to finally admit that what is happening on the southwest border is a crisis. Instead of correcting, they are blaming Congress.

The American people are not stupid. They know that if President Trump was able to establish the most secure border in American history, despite the open-border groups rushing to get his immigration policies enjoined in activist courts at every turn, then President Biden, too, could use his executive authority to help secure the border and restore those policies.

They know that President Biden simply refuses to do it. President Biden refuses to implement the migrant protection protocols, to stop abusing discretionary case-by-case and other parole authority, and to re-implement President Trump's asylum cooperative agreements so we can remove illegal aliens seeking asylum to third countries.

President Biden refuses to expand the use of expedited removal, refuses to use 212(f) authority to suspend the entry of aliens to secure the border, and refuses to end catch and release.

President Biden refuses to comply with the mandatory detention status of the Immigration and Nationality Act for inadmissible aliens. He refuses to rein in the use of taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal aliens.

This stands in stark contrast to President Trump, who only refused to give up on securing the border.

To everyday Americans, the answer to the border crisis is simple: Secure the border and enforce the law. That is what the Trump administration did; that is what America needs; and that is what President Biden refuses to do.

H. Res. 1065 affirms that President Biden has the executive authority to help control the border, affirms that the Biden administration is refusing to use that authority, and urges President Biden to immediately begin using that executive authority as has been done before.

H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, passed this House last spring. It would enhance our current law and help ensure the border is controlled. Senate Democrats have refused to bring that bill to the Senate floor for almost a year now.

In the meantime, and while we wait, President Biden should use his executive authority to ensure the national security and public safety of Americans is paramount. He should use it to secure our border, and he should do so today.

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Mr. FRY. De La Cruz), my friend and colleague who is the author of this resolution.

Ms. De La CRUZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H. Res. 1065, which is critical to addressing one of the most pressing challenges of our time: the unprecedented crisis at our southern border.

This resolution is not just a condemnation of this administration's policies but a call to action, a plea for a return to responsibility, security, and the rule of law.

The Biden administration's approach to border security, marked by its relentless pursuit of political correctness at the expense of common sense and American lives, has reached a point of abject failure.

This was made painfully clear by the President's abhorrent recent statements where he felt compelled to apologize for accurately identifying a murderer as an illegal immigrant.

Let me be very clear: As the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants myself, I am very proud of our heritage. In fact, the community where my family and I live is over 90 percent Hispanic, and I have yet to encounter anyone, outside of three or four activists here in Washington, D.C., who are offended by calling Laken Riley's killer exactly what he is, an illegal immigrant who is a murderer. In fact, where I am from, being called an illegal immigrant is perhaps the kindest thing we would say about such a despicable individual who is a murderer.

The outrage seems reserved for those who are out of touch with the realities of everyday Americans, including the vast majority of Hispanics who are sick and tired of extremists using our culture as a shield for their radical open-borders agenda.

President Biden's apology is emblematic of a broader issue. Our border policy, just like everything else with this administration, is not dictated by the needs of Americans but by the whims of D.C. insiders and elites who do not care about working Americans. Their policies have jeopardized the safety and well-being of both American families and the migrants and children who are being exploited by the ruthless cartels.

This resolution, once again, brings to light the harrowing reality that under President Biden's and Secretary Mayorkas' watch, our Nation has witnessed the worst border crisis in American history.

The resolution is clear on its demands. It is time for this administration to uphold its responsibilities. We must initiate asylum cooperative agreements with safe partner countries, employ expedited removal authority judiciously, and ensure that those not admissible are detained, as Federal law requires.

This is not merely a question of immigration policy but of national security, public safety, and basic human dignity.

Mr. Speaker, I respectfully implore my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support H. Res. 1065. Let us send a resounding message that the safety and security of American citizens are nonnegotiable. We deserve a sensible, secure, and humane immigration system. For the sake of our Nation, for the protection of our citizens, and for the integrity of our borders, I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

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Mr. FRY. Mr. Speaker, I have no more speakers.

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, I think my colleagues on the other side suffer from a little bit of amnesia because just as quickly as these border patrol policies were taken away with the stroke of a pen at the start of this administration, the purpose of this resolution is to remind our President, who seems to have forgotten, that he has every authority to put back the policies that worked in the first place with that same stroke of a pen.

There are steps today that this administration could unilaterally do, including: ending catch and release, reinstating the migrant protection protocols, entering back into asylum cooperative agreements with Latin American countries, ending abuses of parole authority, detaining inadmissible aliens, using expedited removing authority, and reining in taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal aliens.

The Biden administration single-handedly created this crisis at the southern border, and they can end it with the stroke of a pen.

This resolution calls out these numerous actions the Biden administration has taken to systematically open up our borders.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly urge my colleagues to support H. Res. 1065, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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