No Bailout for Sanctuary Cities Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. LaLOTA. Mr. Chair, you break it, you bought it. That is not a Republican saying. That is not a Democrat saying. That is just a widely accepted premise in our culture: You break it, you bought it.

Let me tell you, Mr. Chair, nobody broke the border like President Biden and Vice President and border czar Kamala Harris, along with the mayors and Governors of sanctuary cities and States.

President Biden broke the border when he repealed 64 very effective Trump-era policies. Biden repealed remain in Mexico. Biden applied lower asylum standards. Biden stopped border wall construction. Biden even repositioned border agents away from the border to be in migrant processing centers behind desks just to process more and more migrants into the country.

By reversing Trump's very effective policies, President Biden and border czar and Vice President Kamala Harris have created a wide-open border for illegal immigration and asylum abuse.

The immediate consequence of these actions was a surge in illegal border crossings, reaching levels we have never seen before. Now, every State, including New York, nearly 2,000 miles away from the southwest border, has become a border State.

While the Biden-Harris administration has done its damage, sanctuary city jurisdictions are only exacerbating this crisis even further. When cities like New York adopt sanctuary policies and forbid local law enforcement from coordinating with Federal officials on enforcing immigration law, they send a huge signal to those who are in our country illegally or those who would break our asylum laws.

The message is: Come to New York. Come because we will not enforce Federal immigration law here.

The migrants sure got the message. Mr. Chair, 100,000 migrants have passed through New York City since the spring of 2022. At the height of the crisis, there were over 64,000 migrants in the city's care, all at the taxpayers' expense.

New York's Governor recently proposed $5 billion more to address New York's migrant crisis at the same time she proposed cutting from our kids' public schools. Yet, New York State officials did absolutely nothing to change New York City's and New York State's sanctuary policies. Despite the uncontrolled crisis across the five boroughs, New York City has refused to change its sanctuary policies, the very policies incentivizing illegal immigration.

Those illegally crossing the border or who feign asylum to be paroled into the interior of our country know that if they make it to New York, they will be given taxpayer-funded food, shelter, healthcare, transportation, and social services. Hardworking American taxpayers will be the ones footing the bill, Mr. Chair.

If we do not put an end to these sanctuary city policies, that number will continue to balloon, costing families even more, all during a time of significant financial hardship and record inflation. New Yorkers, and indeed all taxpayers, should not have to bear this burden.

Schools are at capacity. Our cities are overrun. Our law enforcement is stretched to the limit. Our social services are being overwhelmed. Our hospitals are overburdened. Local budgets are strained to the breaking point. Homeless Americans are having trouble accessing shelter services. Migrant children, many unaccompanied, are being exploited by smugglers, traffickers, and violent gangs, and they are being put to work illegally or, worse, abused and trafficked.

Instead of changing course, cities like New York have the audacity to turn around and demand more money from taxpayers from nonsanctuary jurisdictions to fund their failed sanctuary policies.

Today, Mr. Chair, enough is enough. My No Bailout for Sanctuary Cities Act is about accountability. It is about ensuring that cities and States that refuse to enforce Federal laws are not rewarded with Federal dollars related to their defiance.

Let the policymakers from sanctuary jurisdictions hear us loud and clear: If you incentivize illegal immigration in your city, knowing full well the migrants will come, don't come to the Federal Government for a bailout.

Let me make something also abundantly clear: This legislation will prohibit Federal funding from going toward fueling the root causes of the migrant crisis. In no way, Mr. Chair, can this legislation be construed to harm school systems, law enforcement, and other benefits for American citizens. Those entities will remain eligible for Federal funding under this legislation.

Mr. Chair, America is like a ship taking on water. My colleagues from the other side of the aisle, their solution is to merely build a bigger boat. My solution, Mr. Chair, is to plug the hole causing the crisis in the first place by cutting off Federal funds that would only exacerbate the crisis.

Mr. Chair, I thank the chairman for his support of my legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support the No Bailout for Sanctuary Cities Act.

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