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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Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this resolution.

Here we go again. The Republican majority made their appropriations bills so extreme that they can't pass the vast majority of them with votes from their own party. Instead, we are going to come here to the floor and waste our time as they politicize the work that we are doing here in Congress and use this time to attack the Vice President.

They can't pursue their impeachment claims, their fake impeachment claims of Joe Biden, or any other number of people that they have targeted, because Joe Biden is no longer running for President. Now, they have got to quickly shift and instead use their time on this floor, where we are supposed to be doing official business, to attack Vice President Harris days after she is clearly going to be our Democratic nominee for President.

Kamala Harris was never the border czar. She was never asked to address the situation at the border. She was asked to do something that MAGA extremists, who want quick fixes that they can give to FOX News, never want to focus on, and that is a real solution.

She was narrowly tasked with developing agreements that could help bring government and private-sector investments to those countries that are sending migrants to the United States, so that those countries could help strengthen the conditions in those countries. She did so, most significantly in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.

She brought in billions from private-sector investments to support government funding for entrepreneurs, to ensure labor rights, to strengthen food security, and launch projects across those countries that invested in financial inclusion, healthcare, climate finance, and affordable housing. Those are the things that will keep migrants in their home countries.

The only reason that Republicans are doing this today is to distract the American people from the fact that they still can't get anything done here on the House floor that will actually benefit the American people. It is no wonder. The leader of their party has been convicted on 34 felony counts and has a Trump Project 2025 agenda that will take total control over people's lives.

That agenda includes plans for mass deportations, including spouses and children of U.S. citizens, Dreamers, and essential workers and farm workers.

Let's not forget that roughly 22 million people in America live in mixed-status families where at least one person is undocumented. When Donald Trump and Republicans are talking about mass deportations, they are talking about tearing apart American families.

It doesn't end there. Trump's Project 2025 calls for the end of protections for Dreamers and family-based immigration. Attacking family unity comes as no surprise from the party that cruelly tore over 5,000 kids from their moms and dads. Trump's Project 2025 also eliminates due process in the immigration system. It would deny people their day in court to make their case for protection under U.S. laws. Republicans have made it clear over and over again that they do not want to modernize our immigration system.

Even the bill that was written by the second-most conservative Republican Senator in the U.S. Senate, Trump told them not to vote for it, so they didn't because they wanted to keep it out there as an election issue.

Mr. Speaker, Republicans want to distract you from the fact that the Biden-Harris administration has been the most effective administration in my lifetime, investing in infrastructure and green jobs, taking on climate change, bringing down the cost of prescription drugs, and canceling student loan debt so people have more money in their pockets instead of allowing billionaires to profit off your pain.

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Ms. JAYAPAL. Just today we heard that the economy grew by 2.8 percent in the second quarter showing extraordinary strength because of the policies that President Biden and Vice President Harris have put into place for this country.

Don't be distracted, Mr. Speaker. Democrats want to protect your freedoms, uphold democracy, and give every American a real chance to succeed.

Vote ``no'' on this resolution.

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