House Freedom Caucus

Floor Speech

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Mr. PALMER. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to call upon this body to fulfill its duty to protect the American people.

Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to claim that strengthening border security is about separating families or preventing them from immigrating to the U.S. In reality, it is about protecting the American people by stopping the flow of dangerous individuals across the southern border.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen has confirmed that ISIS has produced written materials that encourage ISIS followers to cross our Southwest border, given the loopholes that they are also aware of, and that, on average, her department now blocks 10 known or suspected terrorists a day from traveling to or attempting to enter the United States.

The four individuals shown here, one of whom had been previously identified and flagged for insurgency/terrorism, were stopped in Panama while trying to make their way to the U.S. Thanks to a fortunate tip and coordination between U.S. and Panamanian law enforcement, these individuals were stopped.

This should be alarming to every American, especially concerning the dangerous individuals we may have missed and will continue to miss due to our lack of robust border security.

I am proud of the job our Border Patrol and law enforcement officers are doing to protect their country, and I urge my colleagues to do our duty to protect the American people from dangerous individuals by taking border security seriously and fully funding the President's proposal for border security.

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