[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 84 (Wednesday, May 15, 2024)] [House] [Pages H3239-H3243] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] CONDEMNING THE BIDEN BORDER CRISIS AND THE TREMENDOUS BURDENS LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS FACE AS A RESULT Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1227, I call up the resolution (H. Res. 1210) condemning the Biden border crisis and the tremendous burdens law enforcement officers face as a result, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House. The Clerk read the title of the resolution. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 1227, the resolution is considered read. The text of the resolution is as follows: H. Res. 1210 Whereas the Biden administration brazenly eliminated effective and lawful Trump administration immigration enforcement policies, directly leading to the worst border crisis in the history of the Nation and affecting every State; Whereas the Biden administration's failed border policies have resulted in an exponential rise in illegal alien encounters, totaling more than 9,300,000 in less than 4 years; [[Page H3240]] Whereas over 1,800,000 known ``gotaways'' have crossed the border illegally and evaded apprehension, with the administration having no idea of their identity, whereabouts, or intent; Whereas at least 362 individuals on the terrorist watch list have been apprehended trying to illegally enter the country between ports of entry since fiscal year 2021; Whereas fentanyl and other synthetic opioids are pouring into the United States, forcing local police departments to issue naloxone, a lifesaving medication used to reverse opioid overdoses, to every officer; Whereas the suffering endured by the American people from the unprecedented rise in dangerous crime and historic levels of drug-related deaths is the direct result of an unsecured border; Whereas elected Democrats from Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, and Washington, DC, have declared states of emergency as a result of the border crisis; Whereas Democrat-led sanctuary cities have slashed city budgets, including funding for law enforcement; Whereas law enforcement officers in the United States have suffered through calls by politicians and activists to ``defund the police'' and are now suffering from historically low levels of recruitment and morale as a result of these attacks to their profession; Whereas migrant gangs, such as the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, actively recruit newly arrived illegal aliens into theft rings and criminal networks; Whereas New York City Police Department Commissioner Edward Caban has warned New Yorkers of a ``wave of migrant crime'', and Democrat Mayor Eric Adams has claimed the migrant crisis will ``destroy New York City''; Whereas, on February 23, 2024, Venezuelan national Jose Antonio Ibarra was arrested and charged with the murder of 22-year-old student Laken Riley; Whereas Ibarra entered the country illegally in September 2022 and was subsequently released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection into the interior; Whereas, on March 2, 2024, an illegal alien, who entered the United States as a ``gotaway'' at an unknown time and location, allegedly struck and killed Washington State Trooper Christopher Gadd; Whereas a Haitian national who entered the United States via the unlawful Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan parole program, was arrested on March 13, 2024, for the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl at an illegal alien shelter in Massachusetts; Whereas an illegal alien from Lebanon apprehended while illegally crossing the southwest border on March 9, 2024, admitted to being a Hezbollah terrorist and having intentions to make a bomb; Whereas, on March 21, 2024, illegal aliens in El Paso rushed the border fence and Texas National Guard troops in an effort to breach the border into the United States; Whereas a previously deported illegal alien was charged on March 23, 2024, with murdering 25-year-old Michigan resident Ruby Garcia; Whereas, on March 27, 2024, an illegal alien from China illegally breached a military base in California and refused to leave; Whereas, on January 27, 2024, 2 New York City Police Department officers were assaulted by more than a dozen illegal alien suspects in Times Square, many of whom were set free without bail; and Whereas law enforcement officers are increasingly targeted and assaulted by illegal aliens while Democrat elected officials prioritize illegal alien criminals over citizens and legal residents of the United States: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives-- (1) acknowledges that United States law enforcement officers are bravely facing dangers and challenges every day that are exacerbated by the unprecedented crisis at the border, which affects the entire country; (2) condemns the open border crisis that President Joe Biden, ``Border Czar'' Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, and other Biden administration officials have willingly created along the southwest border; (3) urges the Biden administration, and State and local elected officials, to encourage and support dedicated law enforcement officers so those officers can protect the homeland, their cities, counties, or States, and restore law and order; and (4) recognizes and sympathizes with law enforcement officers in the United States who have suffered through the mental, physical, and psychological stress associated with the lack of support, trust, and respect they face in our country today. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The resolution shall be debatable for 1 hour, equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on the Judiciary or their respective designees. The gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler), each will control 30 minutes. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California. General Leave Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H. Res. 1210. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from California? There was no objection. Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, H. Res. 1210 comes before us as thousands of frontline law enforcement officers come here to this Capitol to ask for our help to restore a justice system that was once the envy of the world but, in recent years, has been undermined by woke district attorneys who refuse to enforce our laws, woke city councils that insult and defund our law enforcement, and woke Federal officials who refuse to secure our border, which is becoming an increasing source of deadly drugs, terrorists, criminal gangs, and criminal cartels that illegally cross our borders daily. Just a week ago, I noted on this floor that on the first day that Joe Biden took office, he rescinded the successful remain in Mexico policy that had slowed phony asylum claims to a trickle, completely blocked completion of the border wall, and ordered ICE to stop enforcing court- ordered deportations. Thus began the largest illegal mass migration in history. {time} 1545 I need to update the numbers this week that I cited last week. To date, this administration has now deliberately released a total of 4.9 million illegal aliens into our communities, and it has allowed another 1.9 million known got-aways to evade Border Patrol as the Border Patrol has been overwhelmed. With the new numbers combined, there are nearly 6.8 million illegal aliens who have entered this country because of the Democrats' open- border policies. That is a population larger than the entire State of Indiana, our 17th largest State, with nine Congressional Districts. Now, I expect the Democrats will complain that we are bringing up yet another measure condemning these policies. Well, I have news for them. They need to get used to it. We are going to keep bringing it up until these policies are reversed or until the people can elect an administration that can and will. I suspect we will hear the Democrats today, as we have on so many past debates, assert that immigrants are more law-abiding than Americans. Well, listen carefully to what they say. They make no distinction between legal immigrants and illegal immigrants, and that is a supreme insult to the millions of legal immigrants who enter our country every year by obeying our laws, waiting patiently in line, and doing everything our country asks of them. Legal immigrants come here, pledge to pull their weight, not to be a burden on others, to obey our laws, and to love and defend our country. Illegal immigrants come here under very different circumstances. Their first act is to commit a Federal crime by illegally entering our country. Their second act is to demand free food, shelter, medical care, clothing, education, transportation, and legal services. I have watched them at the border taunting our Border Patrol as they illegally cross into our country. To equate their lawless behavior with law-abiding, hardworking, and patriotic legal immigrants is an outrage, and my colleagues who do so should be ashamed of themselves. The number of terrorist suspects the Border Patrol has encountered has ballooned exponentially, and law enforcement officials are warning that among the 1.9 million known got-aways--mostly single military-aged men--is likely a dangerous fifth column which could soon launch devastating attacks within our borders. Fentanyl brought in through the open border is killing hundreds of Americans every day. Democrats' sanctuary policies hamstring attempts to deport criminal illegal aliens. Worst of all, the admission of untold thousands of the most vicious gang members on the planet are now producing a terrible butcher's bill of murders and assaults upon Americans. Their contention that illegal immigrants are more law-abiding is simply gaslighting. [[Page H3241]] Here are the real numbers. When the Federation for American Immigration Reform looked at the actual numbers reported by State prisons in order to get reimbursement from the Federal Government, they discovered the tragic truth. Now, again, these are the requests States make to be reimbursed for the costs of incarcerating illegal aliens, and those numbers reveal that aliens are 231 percent more likely to be jailed for crimes in California, 440 percent more likely in New Jersey, and 60 percent more likely in Texas. Just to name a few. Madam Speaker, aliens are 231 percent more likely to be jailed in California according to their own SCAAP numbers. You won't find that anywhere else because it is illegal in California to otherwise report the immigration status of criminals and criminal suspects, so by their criteria, not a single crime is ever committed by illegals in California, yet at the same time they report their jails are overflowing. This is lunacy, and it has got to stop. Our law enforcement officers know this because they deal with this crisis every day at the peril of their own lives. Our angel families know this all too well, as they grieve their loved ones lost to this entirely preventable tragedy. Now, the House can and has written laws that will make it easier for future Presidents like President Trump to secure our borders and make it harder for future Presidents like Joe Biden to open them, but ultimately, this is an enforcement problem. When I visited with the Border Patrol agents in Yuma last year, I reminded them that Congress writes laws but cannot enforce them. I asked them what laws they needed us to write, and they unanimously answered: We don't need new laws; we need to enforce our existing laws. When Republicans visited Eagle Pass in January, the sector chief there said: I am standing in front of an open fire hydrant with a bucket. I don't need more buckets. I need somebody to turn off the hydrant. Donald Trump did that, and despite vicious opposition from the Democrats, he finally got that hydrant down to a dribble. Biden opened it full force with his first executive acts that he signed. That is a problem that can only be fixed by replacing this administration with one determined to secure our border, defend our country, protect our people, and uphold the rule of law. That can only be done by the American people at the ballot box. Until then, Republicans in the House will keep raising this issue at every opportunity because at the moment that is all that we can do. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, my Republican colleagues like to talk a big game when it comes to immigration and border security. They have a long list of grievances against the Biden administration and a lot of tough talk about what should be done, but when it actually comes to doing something about it, doing the hard work of legislating and finding meaningful solutions to real problems, that is where they come up short. Instead, they resort to bringing up completely meaningless nonbinding resolutions that allow them to shake their fists and to demonize immigrants for a little while, accomplishing absolutely nothing. They can't even manage to bring up a simple resolution honoring law enforcement officers during Police Week. They have to turn everything into a broadside against the Biden administration and an excuse to play politics on immigration. For the fourth time in 5 months, Republicans are bringing forth an empty resolution that will do absolutely nothing to address the situation at the border or to repair our broken immigration system. They have completely given up on developing solutions because Donald Trump told them that he wanted to preserve the issue for the upcoming election. He wanted the issue, and he did not want them to solve the problem, so they walked away from a bipartisan deal negotiated by one of the most conservative Members of the Senate. Instead, all they have to offer is meaningless resolution after meaningless resolution, each one a useless rehash of the last. Like the others, this one recycles misleading statistics and constructs a false narrative while accomplishing nothing. That would be bad enough, but it also includes language that is false and downright offensive, such as, ``Democrat elected officials prioritize illegal alien criminals over citizens and legal residents of the United States.'' That is an outrageous assertion that is beneath the dignity of this House. We can have honest debates about policy, but questioning our loyalty to the American people is a disgusting slander and should be an embarrassment to anyone who supports this resolution. Madam Speaker, we know that the best way to secure the border is to expand legal pathways and to adequately fund the immigration system. We have not updated our legal immigration system in 30 years. The more broken the legal immigration system is, the more people will try to come to the border as the only means of entry. Because Republicans refuse to support President Biden's supplemental funding request, we don't have the resources we need to secure the border and to provide additional support for communities receiving migrants. We need more Border Patrol agents, more immigration judges, and more asylum officers so that asylum cases can be heard in weeks, not years. The Republicans talk about catch and release, but that is because the asylum cases take years. If we funded what the President requested for more immigration judges, more asylum officers, not to mention more Border Patrol agents, asylum cases would be heard in weeks, not years, and you wouldn't have this catch and release problem. We need more CBP officers and new detection technology to counter fentanyl. We need to modernize our ports of entry to combat the smuggling of people and drugs. Unfortunately, when it comes to providing the resources necessary to address these critical needs, Republicans have consistently voted ``no.'' If there is a nonbinding resolution full of demagoguery and fearmongering, then they are the first in line to support it. Madam Speaker, we can do better. We must do better. I urge Members to oppose this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I would remind my friend that the bill that he keeps boasting about would tie the hands of any future President to use existing law to secure our border as President Trump did until illegal crossings reach 4,000 a day. That is what they refer to when they praise the Senate bill as the strongest border bill in decades, a bill that would make it impossible to do what Donald Trump did with our existing laws. Those laws didn't change on Inauguration Day. The President changed, and the new President reversed the policies of the Trump administration and introduced this terrible crisis upon our country. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Higgins), the author of this resolution. Mr. HIGGINS of Louisiana. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the resolution that I have authored and introduced and will be considered on the House floor. I am going to calmly suggest my colleagues across the aisle reassess their position on this resolution because they are speaking of Republican majorities walking away from what they allege is a strong immigration reform and border security bill. That bill was not the border security bill that we passed through this House, H.R. 2, which was the strongest legislative measure in the history of Congress. It has been walked away from by the Democrat-controlled Senate. H.R. 2 is condemned by your President, President Biden. You know who also did not universally like H.R. 2, Madam Speaker? The cartels. My colleagues across the aisle may want to wonder, how do you find yourselves aligned with the cartels? Oh, let us review. Since day one of this administration, since January of 2021, the policies of our executive branch were flipped to be more receptive to illegal immigration, and in doing so, more aligned with the [[Page H3242]] cartels' operations of trafficking human beings and drugs into our country. Anyone with two brain cells that may occasionally bump into each other would realize that if you soften your existing law enforcement on illegal immigration when on the other side of the border the territory is 100 percent controlled by criminal cartels who are trafficking two things, human beings and drugs, what do you think might happen? Of course, you are going to have a drastic increase in trafficked human beings and drugs, which is exactly where we are. Republicans took action in the first few months that we had majority control. We went through exhaustive legislative measures to battle through the language of H.R. 2. We went through an 18-hour markup in the Homeland Security Committee, my committee. We brought H.R. 2 to the floor, and it was passed with all Republicans supporting that bill. It went to the Senate, and there it remains gathering dust, Madam Speaker. {time} 1600 Madam Speaker, we had countless efforts to communicate with our colleagues in the Senate, encouraging them: Take up the bill. If you disagree with H.R. 2, then, by all means, debate and change, amend and pass your version, and send it back to the House. When we go to conference, that is the way things work, but that is not the way it happened in the Senate. The Democrat-controlled Senate killed H.R. 2 which was a legitimate and strong response to the invasion that we have faced at our southern border. My resolution simply acknowledges and condemns the loss of our sovereign control at the southern border and the impact that this wave upon human wave of misery, drugs, and human trafficking has brought upon our country and the impact upon local and State law enforcement who has had to bear the full brunt of the Biden administration policies, Madam Speaker. These are policies that can be flipped very quickly. You put me in charge of our border policy, and you will find out what happens with cartel operations. They are going to have to take some of those trillions of dollars they stole from us trafficking in the misery of human beings who have been caught up in their pipeline and sold their horrible tale of coming to America and prospering. They were sold a story by the cartels, and they were caught up in that trafficking. How is that trafficking allowed? It is because the doors were opened, and the borders were opened. By what? By lack of money? No. It was by change in policy from the executive branch. Local and State law enforcement, Madam Speaker, has had to deal with that. Those men and women have suffered. Those departments have suffered. They have been forced into crisis not by their own communities where they live and serve, but by executive policies of this Federal Government. My resolution is not meaningless, I say to my colleague across the aisle. It is quite the opposite. It acknowledges the service and sacrifice of the men and women who wear a badge at the local and State levels across our country who have been horribly impacted by the Biden administration policies at our southern border which have brought generational trauma upon our country and an era of misery we may never forget. I thank the gentleman for allowing me to speak for this amount of time. Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Biggs). Mr. BIGGS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me. I do find it interesting that the arguments are consistently wrong from my colleagues across the aisle. First of all, now they are telling us: Oh, it is just money. They need more money. Yet, overwhelmingly, everybody on that side of the aisle voted for the continuing resolutions that came up last year. There wasn't one of them who said: Let's amend the CR and get more money. No. They didn't do that. They said: We are going to rely instead on this bogus bill that is going to come from the Senate. Now, the bogus bill from the Senate that they now love and embrace, why do they embrace it? It is because it has a few things in it that are really unique. Number one, every day 1,500 people have to be allowed in. Not legally, because we allow over 1 million people in legally, they have to be let in if they are here illegally. Well, 1,500 would be an improvement for sure because we are looking at 3 million this year, and that would only be about over one-half a million. I can understand why they would say that that is an improvement. The reality is that the President has authority now to act and has chosen not to act. This bill from the Senate would have said that he could close the border when the number got to 5,000 a day. That was an option, 5,000. Good grief, that is over 1.8 million. By the way, that would still be an improvement over what the Biden policy is today. The mandatory closure of the border doesn't kick in until 7,500 illegal aliens are encountered. Wow, that is what they say is so great. The other thing they like about it is it granted amnesty. That is what they really liked about this. We know right now President Biden could close that border right now today if he would change the policy. To what, one might say? How about back to the policies of his predecessor, Donald Trump? Let me give you an example, Mr. Speaker. The Yuma sector is a good- sized sector along the border. The entire last year of Donald Trump's Presidency, the encounters were a little under 8,000 for the whole year. Do you know what they get every day now, Mr. Speaker? And this is down. They get 350 a day. There have been days that I have been in Yuma where they have had 2,500 to 3,000 a day. Last week I was down at the border, and the week before that I was down at the border at different places in Arizona. I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, that Arizona is on track to going from 2018 through 2020, 60,000 encounters a year on average. This year it will be over 700,000 encounters. The number one drug trafficking and human trafficking corridor is the Tucson sector. When I was there just 2 weeks ago driving along the border, there were no Border Patrol agents. Why is that, you might say, because you could go for miles? It was because every agent was processing the illegal aliens who had crossed during the night. There were hundreds, and we are supposed to say: Well, do you know what? This is a meaningless resolution. It is not a meaningless resolution. It gets at the heart of the matter. Who is being impacted by this type of diaspora? Every country in the world is represented. I have talked to people from all over the world, and let me just tell you this, Mr. Speaker, if you go down to the little town of Sierra Vista in Cochise County, not too far from the border, about 20,000, 25,000 people live there. They have multiple high-speed car chases every week. Why? It is because the cartels control the southern border. They Snapchat and they Instagram to kids in Tucson high schools, Chandler high schools, and Mesa high schools up in my district who will go down and borrow their mom and dad's car. They will go down, and they say: Come meet us at this mile marker, and you will have four bodies. You will get paid $1,000 to $2,000 a body. You take them up to I-8 and I-10, drop them off at this mile marker, or you take them to an address in Phoenix to a drop house. Whatever you do, don't stop. These kids are as young as 13, fatality drivers, who drive at high speeds through a town of 25,000 people. That is the impact that our local law enforcement and our local people feel. How about the city of Yuma? There is one hospital, a 10-bed ER and a 10-bed maternity ward, and it is oftentimes filled with illegal aliens. Locals have to be air- vacked to San Diego or Phoenix. That is real. My friends can dance around it all they want, but this is why this is not a meaningless resolution. Mr. Speaker, I support it, and I encourage my friends to do the same. Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. [[Page H3243]] Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I am ready to close if the gentleman from New York is. Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I am ready to close, and I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, we have heard about the Senate bill, that it wasn't strong enough. It was strong enough so that Senator McConnell supported it. Senator Lankford, one of the most conservative Senators in the Senate, supported it. It was going to pass until President Trump said: I don't want this problem solved. I want an issue for the election. Then suddenly it was stopped. Then we are told about H.R. 2. H.R. 2 was such a terrible bill that it couldn't get more than 32 votes in the Senate, a Senate with 49 Republican Senators. So don't tell me about H.R. 2. Mr. Speaker, this resolution is cloaked in language ostensibly honoring law enforcement, but it is really just another excuse for Republicans to play politics with the southern border and to sound tough without actually doing anything. I am glad that the kind of thing they are talking about doing isn't being done. They say: Turn back to President Trump. President Trump separated thousands of children from their parents, little children, many whom even today cannot be identified and returned to their parents. I don't think this country wants a return to that kind of policy. Mr. Speaker, I urge Members to oppose this pointless resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time. Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, once again, I have to remind my friend that the Senate could not pass its bill. The House passed our bill, and the difference is stark. As I said, the Senate bill forbids any future President from using the powers that Donald Trump used to secure our borders until illegal crossings reached 4,000 a day. He is not required to take any action until they reach 5,000 a day, and even then he must still allow 1,500 illegal crossings every day. That is the Democrats' idea of border security, and it is a farce. This debate encapsulates the differences between the two parties on this issue, and they are absolutely jarring. I don't need to characterize it; it speaks for itself. The American people can clearly see the difference and will need to make the most important choice of their lifetimes in just a few months. I would simply ask: How do we make our streets safer by making it all but impossible to deport illegal aliens as the law requires? That is what our sanctuary cities are doing. How do we make our families safer by flooding our communities with deadly fentanyl? How do we make our children safer by refusing to vet every person who enters our country so that we can keep the criminals out? How do we make our neighborhoods safer by refusing to prosecute criminal illegal aliens to the fullest extent of the law? How do we make our highways safer by creating the conditions of deadly high-speed chases and drunk driving? How do we protect our country as untold numbers of terrorists enter among the 1.9 million known got-aways who have entered under Joe Biden's nose? How do we make our communities safer as criminal gangs and criminal cartels set up shop in our cities for their lethal business of child trafficking, drug trafficking, extortion, and crime? These are the questions that have gone unanswered since this administration took office and with which our local law enforcement officials must grapple every day at the peril of their own lives in order to protect ours. It is time we thanked them for their service and their sacrifice and put the full might and fury of our Nation behind the defense of our national borders. That is what this resolution calls for. However, one thing more will be needed that Congress cannot provide, and that is a new administration. Let us pray it comes in time to save our country. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Meuser). All time for debate has expired. Pursuant to House Resolution 1227, the previous question is ordered on the resolution and the preamble. The question is on the adoption of the resolution. The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that the ayes appeared to have it. Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays. The yeas and nays were ordered. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further proceedings on this question will be postponed. ____________________