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. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss the border crisis, an issue my Republican colleagues are quick to pontificate on but refuse to address.

At the heart of the matter are real people escaping extreme poverty, violence, natural disasters, and persecution. They are leaving their homes, their families, their culture, and their countries to do what many of our own ancestors did in order to seek a better life.

What they experience in pursuit of the American Dream is nothing short of a nightmare. On their journey to the United States, they risk their lives traveling through treacherous terrain. They are vulnerable to everything from drug cartels to disease.

Throughout our country and especially in border communities, the inpouring of migrants seeking asylum and immigrants is overwhelming hospitals, schools, and other social service providers.

Instead of advancing solutions, Republicans in this House have resorted to blatantly obvious politics. Unfortunately, because this body has failed to deliver resources to our borders, tens of thousands of personnel have had to do more with less as the crisis worsens.

In my district and other northern border communities, our Border Patrol officers and agents are being sent away from their posts in the north to meet the demands at the southern border, even as migration and illegal drug smuggling rises back home.

The need to act could not be more dire.

Earlier this year, a bipartisan coalition of United States Senators came together for the first time in decades to provide meaningful immigration reform. The bipartisan bill would invest in law enforcement with more than 2,000 new Border Patrol officers and other personnel to secure the border, speed up the processing of those seeking asylum, crack down on illegal drugs by investing in cutting-edge inspection machines for ports of entry, and improve the immigration system with 4,300 new asylum officers and 100 more immigration judges.

We have the solution. Extreme MAGA Republicans in this body declared it dead on arrival before even reading the bill. Instead of solving real problems, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle chose politics over people.

We were sent here to do the opposite. We could be using this time to advance a bill that would improve the lives of Americans, those seeking asylum, and immigrants while strengthening security at the border and boosting our economy. Instead, we are wasting our time on this political stunt.

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Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, we are wasting our time on this political stunt, one that is both entirely transparent and, frankly, desperate. This is simply an attack on Vice President Kamala Harris for one reason: Her career is advancing, and extreme MAGA Republicans are shuddering.

Since Democrats have rallied behind our nominee for President, extreme MAGA Republicans, fearful of a candidate running on the issues instead of a cult of personality, have rushed this emergency resolution to the floor of the House. It has no basis in fact or reality. That doesn't appear to bother my colleagues across the aisle.

What they should be doing is bringing the bipartisan border bill to the floor for a vote. That is what the American public wants. That is what I urge my colleagues to do.

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