Pay Our Homeland Defenders Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. JEFFRIES. Madam Speaker, I also thank my distinguished colleague, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, the Honorable Rosa DeLauro, for yielding and for her tremendous leadership.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to this Republican budget that prioritizes ICE brutality over the American people.

We are now more than 40 days into a Trump Republican shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. Why are we here? Republicans are trying to convince the American people that Democrats should be blamed. Wait a second. Last time I checked, Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the Presidency.

You spent the last 15 months trying to lecture the American people that you have some historic mandate. If, in fact, that is the case, when the Government shuts down in its entirety, or partially, it is because Republicans have decided to shut the Government down and, in this particular instance, to prioritize ICE brutality over the American people.

There is legislation that is available for Republicans to bring to the floor that would pass overwhelmingly to fund the entirety of the Department of Homeland Security, with the exception of ICE and the Trump extreme mass deportation machine, which has unleashed incredible and unspeakable brutality on the American people and on law-abiding immigrant families.

Why have Republicans chosen to prioritize ICE brutality over the American people when it is not that complicated? We should be paying TSA agents. Instead, Donald Trump and Republicans have sent ICE agents to airports all across the country.

Watch this: ICE agents are sitting around, standing up, doing nothing to address the airport crisis right now.

ICE agents, however, at these very airports, are doing nothing and are being paid at the same period of time TSA agents who are doing the work have been forced by Republicans to work without pay for more than 40 days. Why? Because Republicans have decided that they don't want to get ICE under control and, instead, are forcing TSA agents to work without pay, inconveniencing millions of Americans all across the country and causing chaos at airports throughout the land. Unacceptable. Enough is enough.

Mr. Speaker, Republicans can simply bring a bill to the floor to reopen every other aspect of the Department of Homeland Security, pay ICE agents, support FEMA, stand up for the Coast Guard, and make sure that this country can continue to function. Instead, as we have repeatedly seen, Republicans have decided they would rather jam their rightwing extreme ideology down the throats of the American people.

We haven't been complicated in the point that we have made to our Republican colleagues about what needs to happen when it comes to ICE. We are standing on the side of the American people. Yes, we will always support securing the border, today, tomorrow, and forever. At the same period of time, immigration enforcement in this country should be fair, just, and humane.

If you have something to say to me, you can say it right now.

That is what I thought.

Immigration enforcement in this country should be fair, it should be just, and it should be humane. Instead, you are unleashing brutality on the American people and using taxpayer dollars, in some instances, to kill American citizens, like Renee Nicole Goode and Alex Pretti, a nurse who was dedicating his life to be there for veterans who serve this country.

We believe, in America, taxpayer dollars should be used to make life more affordable for the American people, not brutalize or kill them--to make life more affordable for the American people.

Here is what we have put on the table: yes, we believe dramatic changes to ICE should be bold and transformational and meaningful, but there are also commonsense changes vastly supported by the American people that includes ensuring judicial warrants are required before masked ICE agents can storm the homes of the American people and rip them out of bed in the middle of the night.

There should be independent investigations by State and local authorities so that ICE agents, who violently break the law, can be held accountable, just like every other American. We believe that ICE agents should be compelled to conduct themselves like every other cop, police officer, or law enforcement agency.

That is not what is happening right now. We need an end to roving patrols that are violently targeting law-abiding immigrant families and brutalizing the American people. The masks need to come off and body cameras need to come on.

Yes, we also need to protect sensitive locations like houses of worship, hospitals, schools, and polling sites. These are commonsense reforms that, at the same period of time, are bold, meaningful, and transformational. They are designed to accomplish one chief objective: make sure that ICE conducts itself like every other law enforcement agency in the country, like every other cop, every other police officer, and every other State trooper. That is not what is happening in this country right now.

This Republican budget that is before us prioritizes ICE brutality over the American people, and that is why House Democrats are strongly opposed to it.

What is interesting, to make matters worse--because this is all about priorities and choices and the choices that Republicans have made--the priorities that Republicans are emphasizing are all hurting the American people. They are using taxpayer dollars to brutalize them and at the same period of time spending billions of dollars in a reckless war of choice in the Middle East. They are dropping bombs in the Middle East but won't spend a dime to make life more affordable for everyday Americans? What kind of choice is that?

That is where their priorities are, Madam Speaker. It is extraordinary to me. We think taxpayer dollars should be used to make life better for the American people, and there are a variety of ways to do it. We should be focused on that because America is too expensive right now.

Donald Trump promised to lower costs on day one. Costs aren't going down. They have gone up. Housing costs are out of control. Health insurance premiums are out of control. Grocery bills are out of control. Childcare costs are out of control. Utility bills are out of control. America is too expensive, and it is getting more expensive because of failed Republican policies.

Donald Trump promised to lower costs on day one. Costs aren't going down, Madam Speaker, in the United States of America.

Costs are going up as a direct result of failed Republican policies.

The Trump tariffs have increased costs on everyday Americans by thousands of dollars per year.

Republicans have refused to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. As a result, more than 20 million Americans are experiencing dramatically increased health insurance premiums, making it unaffordable for everyday Americans, working-class Americans, and middle-class Americans to go see a doctor when they need one. That is policy violence that Republicans are inflicting on the American people.

Republicans have launched a reckless war of choice in the Middle East, dropping bombs, spending billions of dollars, but they can't find a dime to make life more affordable for the American people. What kind of choice is that?

Republicans continue to lean in to their one big, ugly bill, which Democrats will continue to expose. It is policy violence being inflicted on the American people.

In that one big, ugly bill, Republicans ripped healthcare away from more than 14 million Americans. That is what Republicans have done. It was a $1 trillion cut, the largest cut to Medicaid in American history. My Republican colleagues are choosing ICE brutality over the healthcare of the American people.

In the same period of time, in that one big, ugly bill, which every single Democrat in the House and the Senate opposed on behalf of the American people, in that one big, ugly bill, Republicans cut nutritional assistance by $186 billion, the largest cut to SNAP in American history.

Republicans literally ripped food from the mouths of hungry children, seniors, and veterans, and then turned around in that same bill and gave the Department of Homeland Security--watch this--$191 billion, including creating a $75 billion slush fund for ICE to unleash brutality and violence on the American people, to kill American citizens in at least three instances, and to violently target law- abiding immigrant families.

This is policy violence that Republicans are inflicting on the American people. Then, they present this budget in front of us today that again prioritizes ICE brutality over standing up and making life more affordable for the American people?

These are challenging times that we are living through here in the United States of America. Republicans are unleashing extremism and policy violence each and every day of this Presidency. These are challenging times in the United States of America, but help is on the way. We are seeing that in elections all across the country, including, most recently, in the district where Mar-a-Lago sits.

Help is on the way, and so I promise to the American people that we are going to fight as hard as we can. We are going to show up, stand up, and speak up for the American people.

We will lower the high cost of living. We will fix our broken healthcare system. We will clean up corruption. We will get ICE under control. We will stop this reckless war of choice in the Middle East. We will end this national nightmare. One day soon, we will continue America's long, necessary, and majestic march toward a more perfect Union.

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