Police Our Border Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. NUNN of Iowa. Mr. Chairman, the administration's failure to secure our southern border has turned all of our States into border States.
The administration's open-border policies have allowed an influx of over 8 million illegal migrants and more than 27,000 pounds of deadly fentanyl, and that is just what we know of, to enter our country.
Earlier this year, fentanyl hurt so many of our families, so I invited folks from my district. Deric and Kathy Kidd joined me to hear what our country could do during the State of the Union to help fight the fentanyl crisis, the synthetic drug made in China that enters our country illegally, primarily through our southern border, which has so far been left completely unprotected. We honor the loss of their son.
At 17, he lost his life and became one of 150 Americans every day dying from the fentanyl crisis.
We looked for answers from the administration to close the border that they could do on day one, to be able to stand up and make sure that catch and release is ended, and to reinstate remain in Mexico.
The administration chose to do none of those things, and they have put our law enforcement on the front lines of defending our communities not just from local policing but from the threat posed by this deadly drug.
Mr. Chair, no family should experience what the Kidd family did. This, in their own words, could and should have been prevented but, unfortunately, it remains.
Most recently, Interstate 35 that extends from Mexico north right into my district in Iowa was the site of the largest seizure of fentanyl near Des Moines. A 35-year-old male traveling from the southern border was intercepted not by Border Patrol or Federal law enforcement but by local police. They seized 30,000 fentanyl pills in his car. Let's not forget one teaspoon is more than enough to kill an entire community.
Luckily, our law enforcement officers were able to intercept these drugs and made sure they did not make it to our State and were not on our streets. There is no doubt that we must secure our border to prevent drugs from flowing into our country, but we also need to address the strain that this places on families and our local first responders.
In conversations with sheriffs at the police departments in my district, I have talked with too many officers who shared their work and how it is being consumed in the fight against fentanyl.
The bottom line is that local law enforcement officers should not be overloaded with these issues when we have a Federal responsibility to assist them.
To better understand how big of an impact fentanyl is on our communities, my amendment would require the Department of Justice to detail how much States have spent on local law enforcement efforts to investigate, intercept, and process fentanyl that has been trafficked across U.S. borders.
By understanding the root of this challenge, we can better allocate resources and make sure our local law enforcement has the support they need.
Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment and the underlying bill by Representative D'Esposito, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. NUNN of Iowa. Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Indiana (Mrs. Houchin).
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Mr. NUNN of Iowa. Mr. Chair, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from New York (Mr. D'Esposito).
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Mr. NUNN of Iowa. Mr. Chair, I think this can be a bipartisan solution. It impacts all of our communities, all of our cops, and all of our families.
Mr. Chair, I urge passage of the amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. NUNN of Iowa. Mr. Chair, the influx of fentanyl at the southern border has truly impacted every American community.
Since 2021, overdose losses due to fentanyl have exceeded 200,000. We are losing over 150 neighbors, community members, and children daily due to this deadly drug.
It is truly a weapon of mass destruction, produced in China, and sent to the United States with a clear result of killing our country.
This crisis has persisted due to the open-border policies of this administration. The mass importation of fentanyl that is being created is resulting in more and more of not only Communist China's ability to influence but Mexican-based cartels to enter and terrorize every American community.
It is a flood of illicit drugs, and it is costing every single community more. The lack of enforcement on our southern border to deal with this flow of fentanyl is being felt, most poignantly, by our frontline defenders, the brave men and women in uniform, our first responders, many of whom are already facing staffing shortages back home.
Mr. Chair, I thank the men and women who are both the front line and now the last line in the battle against fentanyl in our communities.
I do a lot of ride-alongs with my sheriffs and my local law enforcement, and I have seen firsthand how fentanyl has hollowed out communities and created great pain for so many. There is more that we can do. Our officers are left thinly spread out, our constituents are under siege, and our communities are literally dying as a result of failed policy.
We need to better understand the full scope of the fentanyl crisis, including the impacts that are occurring to our local law enforcement. My amendment to this bill would require the Department of Justice to report to Congress on how many law enforcement officers have been reassigned, how many local resources have been reallocated, how many community policing programs have been reprioritized or, in some cases, not prioritized because fentanyl has become the number one issue that so many of our local law enforcement has had to address.
Gaining visibility on where our local officers are spending their time, prioritizing the threat, and appropriately separating and addressing the issues at the State and Federal levels, respectively, is not only imperative; it is simply prudent.
I am proud to offer this amendment and urge my colleagues to support it, along with the underlying text.
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Mr. NUNN of Iowa. Mr. Chair, I thank my colleague on the other side of the aisle. I think we can all agree that fentanyl is a challenge and that it is killing Americans at an unprecedented rate. Fentanyl now kills more Americans from my daughter's age to my age, and I am getting to be an old man. We should not be in this position.
The reality is that our frontline defenders have become our local law enforcement, and collectively I think we absolutely agree that this should never have happened. This amendment moves forward with the ability to identify this and to help to prioritize these resources.
I will say to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle: There is a way to end this. We recognize immediately that fentanyl comes largely from China. We recognize immediately that it is coming across our southern border, and in this there is no dispute.
``Shut down the border'' should be a great mantra for all of us to be able to save lives. Today, the administration can do that. It can end the catch and release program; it can reinstate a remain in Mexico policy; it can ensure that the drugs flowing across our southern border are intercepted there, so they don't end up being intercepted on our streets, in our hometowns, in the heart of the heartland in communities like mine in Iowa.
Mr. Chair, I don't want to see another child, friend, or neighbor die because we at the Federal level have failed to do our job. By prioritizing these resources, we can better identify what other services are being left behind and what other communities are endangered because their first priority has to be intercepting fentanyl.
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