Special Interest Alien Reporting Act of 2025

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, this bill is not good for national security. That is plain and simple.

This bill would require Customs and Border Protection to publish sensitive detailed national security information on a monthly basis. This information would give the bad guys around the world real-time updates on DHS operations and targeting.

Let's be clear. A special interest alien, an SIA, does not mean someone who is a terrorist. It just means that someone's travel patterns indicate a need for further scrutiny. It means they need more detailed questioning to determine what is going on.

During markup and during the Rules Committee meeting, we heard from my Republican colleagues how the Department already publishes information about known and suspected terrorists. That is true. However, this bill demands that DHS post far more detailed information about special interest aliens than DHS publishes about known suspected terrorists.

Today, DHS publishes suspected terrorist information on a monthly basis, broken down by Border Patrol and ports of entry. No other data is published.

Here, my colleague from Georgia wants DHS to publish more information about special interest aliens than they publish about suspected terrorists. For special interest aliens, she also wants information published in real time about where they are from and where they are encountered.

If Ms. Greene's bill mirrored what we report on known and suspected terrorists, I would be happy to support it. However, that is simply not the case here. By publishing this information in real time, bad actors would be able to tell who is getting advanced screening from CBP. They will also be able to tell which locations have been the most successful in interdicting those migrants that need enhanced screening.

Bad actors will adjust their operations in response and try to avoid extra screening, which will only hurt our national security.

Please note, Mr. Speaker, DHS has never publicly released these numbers on a real-time basis because this information, these numbers, are essentially sensitive data we don't want to be made public. As the chair just stated, DHS already has the ability to publish these numbers if they were to choose to make these numbers public.

Mr. Speaker, if it is safe to do, then why isn't DHS already doing it?

I would say, Mr. Speaker, let the security professionals decide what to publish and when. That is their job, not ours. Ours is to legislate. They have the ability to make decisions now. Let them make these decisions.

I ask my colleagues to let the Secretary, again, make the decisions and publish the information they deem safe and correct.

This legislation simply puts our national security at risk by forcing DHS to hand over parts of its playbook on how it stops potential actors from entering the United States. It is all going to make us less safe.

This bill would require Customs and Border Protection to publish sensitive national security information on a monthly real-time basis. We are not talking about personal identifiable information, despite the author's claim. We are talking about releasing who CBP is looking for, targeting, and where those advance interviews are actually happening in real time.

This essentially gives the bad people the opportunity to coordinate, triangulate, and take advantage of the situation, essentially to know what our playbook is.

We all support transparency and accountability at DHS--that is our job here in Congress--but not at the expense of tipping off terrorists or criminal organizations as to what our playbook is.

I am listening to this debate, and we are not debating. We are just talking. Again, for the third time I am going to say: We support transparency. We support this information being made public if the Secretary so deems it to be made public in the interest of our national security. That is all we are saying.

We are Members of Congress. We believe in transparency, accountability, and oversight. That is why folks on this side of the aisle are writing countless letters right now to the Secretary of Homeland Security demanding information so that we can do our job. That is transparency.

I don't know when the last time was that my colleagues were at the border. I was just in San Ysidro a couple weeks ago. I can tell you I went to the secondary inspection. Fentanyl is still coming through that border. People were still breaking through that border. The fact is that border is not secure. That is why you have 2,000 U.S. border agents and 20,000 Mexican border agents trying to work on this issue.

This opposition to this legislation is based on national security. We are saying if this is information that the author thinks is not sensitive, let the Secretary of Homeland Security make that decision to present it. This legislation isn't necessary. You don't want to mandate it. You want to let the anti-terrorist experts make that decision.

Mr. Speaker, I will make it clear to my colleagues and those who are watching this that the Secretary already has the power to disclose this information. All we are saying is to let the Secretary and the terrorist expert decide what should be disclosed in real time. What goes on at the border in real time is the key here.

We support full transparency and accountability of the Department of Homeland Security. That is why a lot of us, including yours truly, were going to those ICE detention centers in my district for the last 2 weeks. I could walk in, and I had a good relationship with those individuals. Then, about a week ago, I was told: You can't come in anymore. You need a 7- day notice.

According to the law, there is no notice that Members of Congress need to give to do an inspection of an ICE holding facility.

They are not doing anything wrong? Okay, so then what is wrong with me coming in and looking at the ICE facility? Transparency, Mr. Speaker, all we are asking for is transparency.

The chairman talked about those cases and due process. I can't speak to those specific ones, but I can speak to what is going on in my district right now. The reason we want more transparency is because I want to make sure that the President of the United States knows what is going on. He promised to go after criminals, those visa overstays, those individuals with orders of deportation, and those individuals who came in, in the last 2 years.

That is the minority, the smallest number, of the people who are actually being apprehended. I say that because the President came out last week and said that we don't want to go after farmworkers, dairy farm workers, and hospitality workers. The President said that we don't want to go after these individuals. We want to go after those three categories.

Mr. Speaker, I will tell you that, back home right now, most of the people who are being rounded up are workers in factories and workers in farms who are picking our crops.

That is part of the American economic strength. The President needs to know that his immigration policies, as being implemented right now, are not what he is saying and not what he deems is good for this country.

That is what transparency and accountability is about, oversight, making sure what they are saying up top is what actually is happening at the ground level.

My colleagues may have seen this story just last week. A gardener at Home Depot gets picked up. He has been in the United States for 25 years. He didn't even have a traffic ticket.

Do you know what the sad part is, Mr. Speaker? Three of his sons are marines in the U.S. Marine Corps.

The President needs to know that he is deporting individuals of mixed households whose children are in the U.S. military.

I am not quite sure--actually, I am certain that is not what the President wanted to happen. That is what our oversight is, to let him know and the public know exactly what is going on in our districts.

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Mr. CORREA. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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