Defending American Property Abroad Act of 2026

Floor Speech

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Mr. FIGURES. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Defending American Property Abroad Act because it is the right thing to do.

We have talked here today about this being a U.S.-based company. It is a little bit more personal than that to me, my colleague Congresswoman Sewell, and a few of my other colleagues from the State of Alabama.

This is an Alabama-based company, and it is the right thing to do because, Mr. Speaker, when you have a company that is operating on land lawfully acquired nearly four decades ago that is performing lawful operations, paying taxes lawfully, and exporting the goods lawfully-- many of which come through my hometown, the Port of Mobile, which is now the deepest port in the Gulf, which they are doing lawfully--then they should be treated lawfully.

What we have here is not really complicated. It is not complex in terms of what the Mexican Government did here. They came in and just took it and said: We are not abiding by a process. We are not abiding by any contractual terms or any other terms. We are just taking it, and by the way, we are not going to pay you for it.

When a foreign entity uses the full force of its military and government to take away property rights from an Alabama-based company, I am going to stand up for them.

We also have an obligation to make sure we are using the full force of our government in response to it. That is what this legislation does. I urge my colleagues to support it for that reason.

Not only that, we are here because it is an Alabama company today, but tomorrow it could be a Mississippi company or a Washington company or Oregon, Indiana, Illinois, or any other State. We cannot sit by quietly and not respond, and not respond proportionately, to what the Mexican Government has done.

I don't have anything against the Mexican Government personally, and I don't have anything, certainly, against the Mexican people. What I do have a problem with is that when we see a government, even our own government, mistreating businesses and people, we have an obligation to speak out and to stand up for that. For that reason, I stand in support of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to do the same.

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