Providing for Consideration of H. Res. Strongly Condemning the Biden Administration and its Border Czar, Kamala Harris's, Failure to Secure the United States Border
Floor Speech
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Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 1376 and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the resolution, as follows: H. Res. 1376
Resolved, That upon adoption of this resolution it shall be in order without intervention of any point of order to consider in the House the resolution (H. Res. 1371) strongly condemning the Biden Administration and its Border Czar, Kamala Harris's, failure to secure the United States border. The amendment to the preamble printed in the report of the Committee on Rules accompanying this resolution shall be considered as adopted. The resolution, as amended, shall be considered as read. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the resolution and preamble, as amended, to adoption without intervening motion or demand for division of the question except one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Homeland Security or their respective designees.
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Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), my good friend, pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. General Leave
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this rule and in support of the underlying legislation. The rule provides for consideration of H. Res. 1371, a resolution strongly condemning the Biden administration and its border czar, Harris, for their failure to secure the U.S. border under a closed rule with 1 hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Homeland Security or their respective designees.
Mr. Speaker, since Biden-Harris took office, American leadership both at home and abroad has become weak and feckless, and that is just putting it mildly. On the global stage, we have seen the Houthis creating chaos in the Red Sea after the administration delisted them as a foreign terrorist organization. Then, just last week, they successfully launched a deadly suicide drone attack in Tel Aviv.
Iran has grown stronger and more dangerous than ever. Their proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, are launching a two-front war against Israel and have attacked our servicemembers over 100 times since October 7. Now their nuclear program is 1 or 2 weeks away from the time needed to produce enough weapons-grade material for a nuclear weapon. Even Secretary Blinken stated: Where we are now is not a good place.
I can continue talking about the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, about Vladimir Putin invading Ukraine following the administration's decision to green-light Nord Stream 2 or I could talk about record-high inflation reaching over 20 percent under Biden-Harris, but the biggest failure is the crisis at the southern border.
Just 64 days into this administration, Biden named Harris his border czar. Now my friends from across the aisle are trying to cover up her failures as border czar and trying to argue that she was never even in charge, but to their chagrin, I brought receipts with me.
Let me read you a few headlines and quotes. Here is Axios on April 14, 2021: ``The number of unoccupied minors crossing the border has reached crisis levels. Harris, appointed by Biden as border czar, said she would be looking at the `root causes' that drive migration.'' That was Axios in 2021.
Here is another headline from the Associated Press on March 24, 2021: ``Biden taps VP Harris to lead response to border challenges.''
Here is another one from Axios, March 24, 2021: ``Biden puts Harris in charge of border crisis.''
Just wait for it, here is President Biden on that same day, March 24, 2021: `` . . . she is the most qualified person to do it--to lead our efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle and the countries that help--are going to need help in stemming the movement of so many folks, stemming the migration to our southern border.'' That was Joe Biden.
The President went on further: `` . . . it is not her full responsibility and job, but she is leading the effort because I think the best thing to do is put someone who, when he or she speaks, they don't have to wonder about is that where the President is. When she speaks, she speaks for me. Doesn't have to check with me.''
Now the debate has been settled. President Biden clearly put Vice President Harris in charge of the border. What did the border czar Harris do? The Biden-Harris administration issued 94 executive actions related to the border. They halted the construction of the border wall and ended remain in Mexico, and they established the catch and release program.
What were the results? In February 2021, the country witnessed a 174 percent increase in southwest border encounters compared to February of 2020. On her watch, there have been over 9.6 million illegal immigrant encounters nationwide. Experts estimate that the number of known got- aways--those are illegal immigrants who have evaded capture--exceed 2 million.
In May of 2021, CBP encountered over 180,000 individuals attempting to enter the country illegally along the southwest border. That was a staggering 675 percent increase from May of 2020. Since fiscal year 2021, 378 illegal aliens on the terrorist watch list have been apprehended at our southern border.
In June, NBC reported that over 400 illegal immigrants with ties to ISIS entered the U.S. under border czar Harris, and the whereabouts of 50 of these individuals are still unknown. In fiscal year 2024, there have been a record-breaking 31,000 Chinese nationals encountered at the southwest border.
Perhaps the worst stat of them all: We have lived through 39 months where the total encounters have been higher than even the highest month seen under President Trump. This is a really simple vote. If you are okay with those results, go ahead and vote ``no.'' If you think border czar Harris has failed the American people, vote ``yes.'' It is really that simple.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this rule, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, if you want to talk about being ashamed, let's talk about who should be ashamed. It is Biden and Harris. They have been a complete disaster, especially with the southern border.
Excuse me for being so audacious as to bring facts and figures to a debate, but I guess I have to apologize for bringing more facts and figures to a debate. Let's go through a few of them.
The Biden-Harris administration has failed to remove 99.7 percent of illegal immigrants released in the United States. Here is another stat: In June, there were 130,419 illegal immigrant encounters at our southern border. This is roughly 4,300 daily encounters, which is--wait for this--four times more than the definition of a crisis that was set by Obama's own DHS Secretary Johnson, who said in 2019 that more than 1,000 encounters a day would overwhelm the system. That was President Obama's DHS Secretary.
Do you want to talk about more facts and figures? In May 2024, Committee on Homeland Security Republicans released documents showing the Biden administration--wait for this--secretly flew over 400,000 illegal immigrants into our country.
Harris still has visited our southern border only once since she became border czar. It took her a total of 93 days to make a token trip to El Paso, which is 800 miles from the sector experiencing the worst numbers.
Then, in an interview with NBC's Lester Holt, Harris was asked: Do you have any plans to visit the border?
She replied: At some point, we are going to the border. Then, she said: We have been to the border.
Lester Holt replied: You haven't been to the border.
Harris replied: And I haven't been to Europe.
You just can't make this stuff up.
Then, former Border Patrol Chief Ortiz stated: ``I have never had one conversation with the President or the Vice President, for that matter. I was the chief of the Border Patrol. I commanded 21,000 people. That is a problem.''
Current Border Chief Owens felt her absence, as well, reporting that the VP has not spoken with him since she was appointed in July 2023.
Mr. Speaker, I have seen gaslighting, but I have never seen gaslighting to this extent. This is quite amazing. Before we get into gaslighting, let's talk about a quick history lesson.
The President that I recall throwing around the term ``czar'' was President Obama. He had a car czar with the cash for clunkers program. It is kind of funny when you think about it. This is the same President who allowed Russia to invade Crimea. This is the same President who went up to the then-President of Russia, I believe, Dmitry Medvedev, and said: I just need a little flexibility. Tell Vlad I just have to get through this election cycle, and then we can talk.
That President named a czar, and that became part of our lexicon, and now we are being attacked because we are calling Harris the border czar.
Axios, as I said before, April 14, 2021, ran an article referring to Harris as border czar. Again: ``The number of unaccompanied minors crossing the border has reached crisis levels. Harris, appointed by Biden as border czar''--it says that right here in the article--``said she would be looking at the `root causes' that drive migration.''
Now, you can say Axios retracted that. They retracted that 3 years after, when that became politically inconvenient.
The Democrats are now trying to say that Harris had nothing to do with the border. Unfortunately for the Democrats, we have a slew of other statements and articles that say that Biden put Harris in charge of the border.
Here is Axios again, March 24, 2021. The title of the article is: ``Biden puts Harris in charge of border crisis.'' It doesn't get more clear than that.
Here are remarks by the President when he was at the State Dining Room on March 24, 2021. This is Biden talking about Harris: ``She is the most qualified person to do it--to lead our efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle and the countries that help--are going to need help in stemming the movement of so many folks, stemming the migration to our southern border.''
Again, that is President Biden telling people at a state dinner that he is putting Harris in charge of the border.
Here is another AP article, titled: ``Biden taps VP Harris to lead response to border challenges.''
You can quibble about names, if she was called the border czar, which is popular in our lexicon, or if she was called whatever. The fact remains the President put the Vice President in charge of managing the border crisis, and it has been an abysmal failure.
The stats speak for themselves. I will get to more stats later on in the debate.
To be clear about one thing: I am not afraid of Vice President Harris and neither are any of my colleagues. The people who should be most afraid of the Vice President are the American people.
In going back to talk about the southern border, every single day in this country, roughly 300 Americans die of fentanyl overdoses. That would be the equivalent of a commercial jetliner going down every single day, once a day, for the last 4 years. That should scare the American people.
Talking about more things, let's talk about crime under this administration. Americans continue to be the victims of violent crime under the Biden-Harris administration.
According to the Major Cities Chiefs Association's 2022 crime report for urban areas across the country, homicides were up 13 percent since 2020, rapes were up 23.56 percent since 2020, and aggravated assaults were up 33.89 percent since 2020.
In 2022, at least nine cities, seven of which are Democrat run, saw record homicides. 2021 was the deadliest year in two decades for our law enforcement officers.
Just listen to their party leaders, like Vice President Harris. She supports defunding the police. She believes it is ``wrongheaded'' and ``outdated'' to think police officers make our communities safe.
She wants to give voting rights to murderers, terrorists, rapists, and even inmates that are sitting on death row.
Harris wants to abolish ICE which protects our communities from illegal aliens and the crimes they commit. She believes cash bail should be eliminated.
The only time Vice President Harris has called for law enforcement to get involved was when Jussie Smollett said men with red MAGA hats were after him. Harris called it a modern-day lynching, and of course, this was an absolute hoax that was fabricated by the radical left with the help of no other than Vice President Harris.
Americans should be afraid of the policies of the Vice President.
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Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Let me just get this straight. By the minority's logic, because Republicans are talking about Vice President Harris, we are somehow afraid of Vice President Harris. That is quite amazing because, for the last 8 years, they have been talking about President Trump. Let the American people decide who is afraid of who.
To the attack that we have done nothing about the southern border, I can give the Democrats some ideas of what to do. How about they can start requesting that the administration go back and repeal the 94 executive orders they issued when they took office which repealed President Trump's executive orders to secure the southern border. That would be a great start. You don't even need congressional action to undo those executive orders.
I have not heard one of my Democratic colleagues call for any of those executive orders to be reversed.
Here is another good idea: H.R. 2. This Chamber passed H.R. 2. It was the first border security bill that was passed in this Chamber, I believe, since the mid-nineties. That was a great bill. It ended catch and release. It reinstated remain in Mexico. It required that this administration finish the border wall. That would definitely halt illegal immigration.
That is sitting over in the Senate. Maybe my friends from across the aisle here could ask the other Chamber to run that bill. Just a few ideas.
I love it when I hear my colleagues talking about so-called bans. There are a few bans that the Vice President is in favor of. Let's go through some of those.
Under President Biden and Vice President Harris, the administration has supported bans on the following: gas-powered vehicles, gas stoves, firearms, and LNG exports.
That is not enough for the Vice President. Harris wants to go even further than Biden. She supports bans on--this is a great list. It is like it is written by the Babylon Bee or something. She supports bans on red meat, plastic straws, private health insurance, fracking, and gas-powered schoolbuses.
Before you know it, the average American is going to have to show their grocery list to Czar Harris before they go to the grocery store.
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Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, if you want to talk about division, I have got a whole list of divisive quotes from my friends across the aisle.
It starts at the very top. Just days before what happened in Pennsylvania, President Biden said that we need to put a bull's-eye on President Trump. That was President Biden.
Former Speaker Pelosi said: ``You have to be ready to take a punch. And therefore you have to be ready to throw a punch--for the children.''
Senator Jon Tester: ``I don't think, even States where Donald Trump won big, that it does you any good running away from Donald Trump. I think you need to go back and punch him in the face.''
That was a quote from Jon Tester.
Here is Joe Biden again: ``I said if I were in high school, I would take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him.''
Congresswoman Maxine Waters said this: ``And with this kind of inspiration, I will go and take out Trump tonight.''
For the Vice President, she too is engaged in some divisive rhetoric. When asked in April 2018: If you had to be stuck in an elevator with either President Trump, Mike Pence, or Jeff Sessions, who would it be?
Do you know how the Vice President responded?
She said: Does one of us have to come out alive?
Save me the rhetoric on divisiveness. I think the American people know where the divisive language is coming from.
Let's go back to the Vice President and her role as border czar, at least that is what the media was calling her up until about 3 days ago.
When Harris was tasked to be border czar, she promised to ``undo'' President Trump's border policies. Unfortunately for the American people, she made good on that promise.
The Biden-Harris administration has referred to the influx of illegals as newcomers. That was their word, ``newcomers,'' not illegal immigrants.
She has called for the decriminalization of illegal border crossings. Border czar Harris has even supported free healthcare and mass amnesty for illegal immigrants.
The question is: Who pays the price for this incompetence?
That answer is simple. That is the American people.
The border crisis has cost the United States approximately $150.7 billion every single year. That is over $1,100 per year per every American taxpayer.
In southwestern Pennsylvania, my congressional district, we are one of the epicenters of the opioid crisis. Since the passage of H.R. 2, over 17,000 pounds of fentanyl had been seized at the southern border. To get your head around how much that actually is, Mr. Speaker, that is enough fentanyl to kill over 3.8 billion people.
Nearly 15 Pennsylvanians die from drug overdoses every single day. As I said earlier in the debate, in the United States, roughly 300 Americans every single day die of a fentanyl overdose.
We have also heard horror stories like the murder of Laken Riley. Laken was a 22-year-old from Georgia who was killed by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela.
Another American, Rachel Morin of Maryland, was a mother of five. She was raped and brutally murdered by an illegal from El Salvador.
Her brother, Michael, stated after her death: ``Joe Biden and his designated border czar Kamala Harris opened our borders to him and others like him empowering them to victimize the innocent.'' Yet to this day, we have not heard from Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. They never apologized.
These brutal deaths are a direct result of border czar Harris' inaction and failed policies. That is why this week House Republicans will rightfully condemn the Biden-Harris administration for their epic failure at the southern border. House Democrats, well, they will stand over there and continue to support and stand by the border czar, Vice President Harris, since they are complicit partners in this manmade disaster at our southern border. This disaster has impacted every community in our Nation.
The material previously referred to by Mr. McGovern is as follows: An Amendment to H. Res. 1376 Offered by Mr. McGovern of Massachusetts
At the end of the resolution, add the following:
Sec. 2. Immediately upon adoption of this resolution, the House shall proceed to the consideration in the House of the bill (H.R. 16) to authorize the cancellation of removal and adjustment of status of certain aliens, and for other purposes. All points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. The bill shall be considered as read. All points of order against provisions in the bill are waived. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill and on any amendment thereto, to final passage without intervening motion except: (1) one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on the Judiciary or their respective designees; and (2) one motion to recommit.
Sec. 3. Clause 1(c) of rule XIX shall not apply to the consideration of H.R. 16.
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