Condemning the Biden Border Crisis and the Tremendous Burdens Law Enforcement Officers Face As A Result

Floor Speech

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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, my Republican colleagues like to talk a big game when it comes to immigration and border security. They have a long list of grievances against the Biden administration and a lot of tough talk about what should be done, but when it actually comes to doing something about it, doing the hard work of legislating and finding meaningful solutions to real problems, that is where they come up short.

Instead, they resort to bringing up completely meaningless nonbinding resolutions that allow them to shake their fists and to demonize immigrants for a little while, accomplishing absolutely nothing.

They can't even manage to bring up a simple resolution honoring law enforcement officers during Police Week. They have to turn everything into a broadside against the Biden administration and an excuse to play politics on immigration.

For the fourth time in 5 months, Republicans are bringing forth an empty resolution that will do absolutely nothing to address the situation at the border or to repair our broken immigration system.

They have completely given up on developing solutions because Donald Trump told them that he wanted to preserve the issue for the upcoming election. He wanted the issue, and he did not want them to solve the problem, so they walked away from a bipartisan deal negotiated by one of the most conservative Members of the Senate.

Instead, all they have to offer is meaningless resolution after meaningless resolution, each one a useless rehash of the last.

Like the others, this one recycles misleading statistics and constructs a false narrative while accomplishing nothing. That would be bad enough, but it also includes language that is false and downright offensive, such as, ``Democrat elected officials prioritize illegal alien criminals over citizens and legal residents of the United States.'' That is an outrageous assertion that is beneath the dignity of this House. We can have honest debates about policy, but questioning our loyalty to the American people is a disgusting slander and should be an embarrassment to anyone who supports this resolution.

Madam Speaker, we know that the best way to secure the border is to expand legal pathways and to adequately fund the immigration system. We have not updated our legal immigration system in 30 years. The more broken the legal immigration system is, the more people will try to come to the border as the only means of entry.

Because Republicans refuse to support President Biden's supplemental funding request, we don't have the resources we need to secure the border and to provide additional support for communities receiving migrants.

We need more Border Patrol agents, more immigration judges, and more asylum officers so that asylum cases can be heard in weeks, not years. The Republicans talk about catch and release, but that is because the asylum cases take years. If we funded what the President requested for more immigration judges, more asylum officers, not to mention more Border Patrol agents, asylum cases would be heard in weeks, not years, and you wouldn't have this catch and release problem.

We need more CBP officers and new detection technology to counter fentanyl. We need to modernize our ports of entry to combat the smuggling of people and drugs. Unfortunately, when it comes to providing the resources necessary to address these critical needs, Republicans have consistently voted ``no.'' If there is a nonbinding resolution full of demagoguery and fearmongering, then they are the first in line to support it.

Madam Speaker, we can do better. We must do better.

I urge Members to oppose this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. NADLER.

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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I am ready to close, and I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, we have heard about the Senate bill, that it wasn't strong enough. It was strong enough so that Senator McConnell supported it. Senator Lankford, one of the most conservative Senators in the Senate, supported it.

It was going to pass until President Trump said: I don't want this problem solved. I want an issue for the election.

Then suddenly it was stopped.

Then we are told about H.R. 2. H.R. 2 was such a terrible bill that it couldn't get more than 32 votes in the Senate, a Senate with 49 Republican Senators. So don't tell me about H.R. 2.

Mr. Speaker, this resolution is cloaked in language ostensibly honoring law enforcement, but it is really just another excuse for Republicans to play politics with the southern border and to sound tough without actually doing anything. I am glad that the kind of thing they are talking about doing isn't being done.

They say: Turn back to President Trump.

President Trump separated thousands of children from their parents, little children, many whom even today cannot be identified and returned to their parents. I don't think this country wants a return to that kind of policy.

Mr. Speaker, I urge Members to oppose this pointless resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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