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Floor Speech

Washington has invented a new definition of temporary--it means permanent.

Haitian TPS was supposed to be just 18 months when it began in 2010. Sixteen years later, 350,000 Haitians are still here. Today, after the Supreme Court cleared the way for President Trump to end TPS and send them home, Democrats are trying to change the law to keep the 350,000 Haitians here permanently. Not on my watch.

I rise today to block the bill, and also do something else, to make clear that those supporting this bill have a message for the American people: Your vote doesn't matter. Your community doesn't matter. Your livelihood doesn't matter.

They are trying to use Washington's oldest immigration trick: Call it temporary, extend it forever, and cash in on a new voter base.

The American people voted to end this scam. Washington Democrats are voting to keep it alive and remind you who they think is really in charge.

Here is the truth Democrats won't say out loud: They never, ever plan to end any of these programs. They call them temporary to get them started, then they manufacture an excuse for every extension--another year, another election, another deadline ignored.

By the time the public notices, temporary status has become permanent residency in everything but name.

Democrats can use this scam to build a new political constituency, a new voter base. Haiti was first designated for temporary protected status following the 2010 earthquake. The designation was supposed to last for 18 months; it has now lasted 16 years. Yet, we are still being told that this is a temporary program. In Washington, temporary, apparently, means forever.

A child born when Haitian TPS began is nearly old enough to vote or sponsor their family for green cards now. That is how long Washington has been calling this program temporary for the Haitians who are here. TPS was created for emergencies. Democrats turned it into a one-way racket towards permanent mass migration.

Here is how the racket works: An emergency creates temporary status. Then the emergency passes, but the status stays. The deadline arrives, but Washington extends it. The voters demand enforcement; the Democrats refuse.

Every click moves towards permanence; none moves back toward the law. That is the TPS racket. Democrats have decided that mass migration must continue and that no President chosen by the American people, who ran on this issue, by the way, will ever be permitted to end it. That is the real purpose of the bill. Its supporters will wrap this bill in language of compassion, but they never seem to have any compassion for the American worker, competing against an ever-expanding cheap labor supply.

They have no compassion for families priced out of housing, workers whose wages are undercut, schools punished and pushed beyond capacity, or communities forced to absorb decisions Washington made for them that they voted against. Their compassion always flows outward, but the bill always arrives on your doorstep.

America is not a global refugee camp. America is not a get-rich scheme for the Third World. America is our home. And when houseguests become squatters, you don't delay enforcement; you call the sheriff and you send them home. That is exactly what we must do here today.

If Democrats want 350,000 Haitians to stay permanently, they should say it plainly. Introduce a bill. Put your name on it. Vote for the permanent status. Then explain that vote to the American people. Quit with the games. But stop calling permanent immigration temporary. The voters are not stupid, and they already made their choice. The voters demanded enforcement. President Trump is delivering on that, but Democrats are fighting to keep the same old scam alive.

I have the power to stop this nonsense bill, and I am going to use it. That is why I am here today.

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