Stop Illegal Entry Act of 2025

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 3486. Let's be clear. This bill is not about border security. It is about pouring gasoline on a prison system that is already bloated, broken, and unjust.

While American families are begging us to release the Epstein files, to lower grocery prices, to keep doctors' offices open, to confront mass shootings, Republicans have chosen to waste our time and taxpayer dollars on a bill that criminalizes what is already a crime under Federal law.

This legislation would impose draconian mandatory minimums, even life sentences, for nonviolent acts like returning to reunite with loved ones. That is not justice. That is cruelty. We should be investing in humane immigration policies, not building more cages. Expanding prisons has never made us safer. It rips families apart, disproportionately targeting Black and Brown communities, and it deepens cycles of poverty and punishment that we should be dismantling, not expanding.

Mandatory minimums don't deter migration. They tie judges' hands, treat every case the same, and devastate communities. We don't need harsher prison sentences. We need pathways and solutions that actually work.

H.R. 3486 is punitive, expensive, and unnecessary. It is waste. It is fraud. It is abuse. I urge my colleagues to stop scapegoating immigrants, stop playing politics with people's lives, and vote ``no'' on this cruel and cynical bill.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source