Police Our Border Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. 8146.

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chair, on Inauguration Day of 2021, our borders were secure. The Trump remain in Mexico policy had cut phony asylum claims to a trickle. The border wall was nearing completion. The court-ordered deportations were being enforced. By the end of that day, President Biden had reversed those policies, and thus began the greatest illegal mass migration in history.

Since that day, he has allowed 6.9 million illegal migrants to enter our country and demand free food, free clothing, free legal assistance, free education, free shelter, free lodging, free phones, and free cash. Except, of course, it is not the least bit free. It all comes out of the earnings of American families and out of the services that we set aside for Americans in need.

Unlike legal immigrants who obey our laws and do everything our country asks of them, the first act of these 6.9 million aliens who have illegally entered our country is to commit a Federal crime. I have watched them personally taunt our Border Patrol at the border as they do so.

Woke cities and States have passed sanctuary laws that forbid our law enforcement officials to turn over illegal aliens who have committed other crimes to ICE for deportation as the law requires. This administration has made these policies national by refusing to enforce over a million court-ordered deportations.

It shouldn't surprise us that many who are willing to violate our immigration laws are also willing to violate the rest of our laws, as well. The number of terrorist suspects that the Border Patrol has encountered has ballooned exponentially, and law enforcement officials are warning that among the 1.9 million got-aways--mostly single, military-aged men--is likely a dangerous fifth column, which could soon launch devastating attacks within our borders.

Fentanyl brought in through the open border is killing hundreds of Americans every day. The Democrats' sanctuary policies hamstring attempts to deport criminal illegal aliens. Worst of all, the admission of untold thousands of the most vicious gang members on the planet is now producing a terrible butcher's bill of murders and assaults on Americans.

When the Federation for American Immigration Reform looked at the requests by States to be reimbursed for the cost of incarcerating aliens, they found that immigrants are 231 percent more likely jailed for crimes in California, 440 percent more likely in New Jersey, and 60 percent more likely in Texas, just to name a few.

Immigrants are 231 percent more likely to be jailed in California, according to their own SCAAP numbers. You won't find that anywhere else because it is illegal in California to otherwise report the immigration status of criminals and criminal suspects. By their criteria, not a single crime is committed by illegals in California, yet their jails are overflowing with them.

As of last December, there were at least 617,000 aliens on Immigration and Customs Enforcement's non-detained docket who have criminal convictions or pending criminal charges. Yet, these dangerous offenders are out on American streets, free to re-offend.

This past year, Mr. Biden removed 60 percent fewer criminal illegal aliens than Trump did in 2019 despite an exponential increase of illegal aliens entering our country, and we are seeing the results every day in murders and assaults on America's streets and in empty chairs at Americans' family dinner tables.

Earlier this year, New York City Police Commissioner Edward Caban declared that ``a wave of migrant crime has washed over our city.'' He should know because, earlier this year, a group of illegal aliens brutally assaulted two NYPD officers. New York Mayor Eric Adams described the assault as ``an attack on the foundation of our symbol of safety.'' He then called on the city council to consider if there should be more collaboration with Federal immigration officials. I suppose it is better late than never.

The bill before us today, H.R. 8146, the Police Our Border Act, requires the Attorney General to submit a report to Congress on the impact of the Biden border policies on law enforcement officers. This report would document officer safety concerns that are linked to increased cross-border movement, such as fentanyl exposure and assaults on law enforcement officers. The report would also examine the overall burden of this unfolding tragedy on law enforcement capabilities and officer morale.

Our men and women in blue continue to protect our communities even when our communities don't fully support them. We owe them better as a nation. With this measure, we declare our determination to recognize and document the threats they face so that we can enact measures to make it harder for a President to ever again unleash these threats upon the American people.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Chair, when my friend complains about partisan Republican rhetoric, I would advise him to listen to his own constituents who are begging their Representatives in New York and Chicago and Denver whose social services are being overwhelmed by the tidal wave of illegal immigration that this administration has unleashed and that my friend has defended every day in this House.

He complains that the term ``Biden border crisis'' isn't defined. He might want to open his eyes and look around him or open his ears to hear the pleas of his own constituents.

Mr. Chair, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New York (Mr. D'Esposito), the author of this measure.

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chair, my friend calls the Senate bill the only viable bill.

If it is so viable, then where is it?

The Senate bill could not be passed by the Senate.

H.R. 2 was passed out of this House and did ultimately receive, I believe, 47 votes in the Senate. The Democrats love to tout the Senate bill. That bill would not have ended Biden's open-border policies. It would have institutionalized them.

Current law gives the President full authority to secure our border. Trump proved that. It requires asylum claimants to be detained. Trump did that.

This bill that he talks about would leave future Presidents powerless to secure the border until illegal immigration reaches 4,000 a day, 1.5 million a year, and it would have required that they be released into our country. That is the Democrats' idea of border security, a guaranteed 4,000 illegal aliens being released into our country every day.

Mr. Chair, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Bacon).

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chair, in response to that tirade, let me just remind the gentlewoman that 6.9 million illegal immigrants have been admitted into our country in violation of our immigration laws since this administration took office.

The gentlewoman speaks of all the taxpayer money that she generously volunteers to pour into our social services. Well, I have news for her: That safety net has been shredded by their open-border policies.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates that just in the last year the cost to our public schools is $70 billion just to educate the children of the illegals whom they have admitted into this country and $22 billion in costs to our hospitals.

Now, I submit to you, Mr. Chair, that if Republicans were to suggest we should cut $70 billion from public education or $22 billion from our public hospitals, there would be complete outrage on the other side of the aisle, and yet that is exactly what their open-border policies are costing us right now. That is a travesty.

There is one way to solve this, and that is to secure our borders as we had accomplished under President Trump.

That is why there are so many Members over there right now to defend a President who actually is serious about defending our borders.

Mr. Chair, I am ready to close when the gentlewoman is, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Pfluger).

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.

To sum up, without law enforcement, there is no law, and without law, there is no civilization. Without immigration enforcement, there are no borders. Without borders, there is no country.

This is where the woke left is taking us, and it is time for Americans to decide how much farther we want to allow them to take us down this dismal and dangerous road.

I think the American people are entitled to ask this administration and its apologists in this Congress: How do we make our streets safer by making it all but impossible to deport criminal illegal aliens, as the law requires? How do we make our families safer by flooding our communities with deadly fentanyl? How do we make our children safer by not vetting every person who enters our country to keep the criminals out? How do we make our neighborhoods safer by refusing to prosecute criminal illegal aliens to the fullest extent of the law? How do we make our highways safer by creating the conditions of deadly high-speed chases and drunk driving? How do we protect our country as untold numbers of terrorists enter among the 1.9 million known got-aways who have entered under Joe Biden's nose? How do we make our communities safer as criminal gangs and criminal cartels set up shop in our cities for their lethal business of child trafficking, drug trafficking, extortion, and crime?

These are the questions that have gone unanswered since this administration took office and with which our local law enforcement officials must grapple every day at the peril of their own lives in order to protect ours.

The Democrats just don't seem to care, but America cares. Americans are dealing with this entirely preventable crisis every day, and our law enforcement officers are the heroes who protect our families and our communities every day. We owe it to them to document the truth, to acknowledge it, and to act on it. That is what this bill would do, and I urge the House to adopt it.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Chair, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment.

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Chairman, who does the gentlewoman think she is kidding? Who does the gentlewoman suggest we assign responsibility for this catastrophe that has overwhelmed our country and its social services, its criminal justice system, and its citizens?

On January 20, 2021, the border was secure, the Trump policies were working. On that day, our laws didn't change, the Presidency changed. On that day, the Trump policies were reversed by one person, Joseph Biden.

Mr. Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. LaLota).

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. D'Esposito).

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.

The motion was agreed to.

Accordingly, the Committee rose; and the Speaker pro tempore (Mrs. Miller of Illinois) having assumed the chair, Mr. DesJarlais, Acting Chair of the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, reported that that Committee, having had under consideration the bill (H.R. 8146) to require a report by the Attorney General on the impact the border crisis is having on law enforcement at the Federal, State, local, and Tribal level, had come to no resolution thereon.

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