Motion to Discharge

Floor Speech

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Mr. TUBERVILLE. Madam President, I want to begin today by recognizing the service and sacrifice of our law enforcement officers. This past weekend, Americans here in our Nation's Capital and around the country participated in National Police Weekend.

Being a law enforcement officer is one of the toughest and most dangerous jobs that there is. I think people on both sides of the aisle in this Chamber would agree with that. Law enforcement officers serve as a boundary between a functioning society and a lawless one. And, sadly, during the course of their vital duty to serve and protect our communities, some pay the ultimate price.

Alabama has lost four individuals in the line of duty to date this year: Deputy Sheriff William H. Smith, of the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office; Police Officer Marquis Dewon Moorer, of the Selma Police Department; Corrections Officer Maurice ``Reese'' Jackson, of the Robertsdale Police Department; Sergeant Nick Risner, of the Sheffield Police Department.

And our State has lost five individuals this year from COVID: Lieutenant Jeff Bain, of the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office; Police Officer Juan Manuel Gomez-Lopez, of the Pelham Police Department; Deputy Sheriff Harry ``Buddy'' Hutchinson, of the Blount County Sheriff's Office; Police Officer Brandon Ard, of the Orange Beach Police Department; Investigator Richard Wendell Humphrey, of the Baldwin County District Attorney's Office.

These nine individuals deserve our honor. They got out of bed each morning, put their uniform on, and went to work for our communities across this country.

To their friends and families, thank you for your sacrifice. It is a tough task, loving and supporting someone who goes to work each day, putting their life on the line to protect people they don't even know. They know only that they are fellow Americans.

And to every Alabamian who wears a badge and a uniform, thank you for all you do for our communities.

It is an unfortunate truth that many officers are being driven out of their profession by a wave of anti-police rhetoric on the heels of bad actors who operated outside their training. The Biden administration had jumped at every opportunity to demonize and demean the entire law enforcement profession. The President has shown that if the optics are bad enough, law enforcement will pay.

This was the case with Border Patrol agents on horseback in the Del Rio Sector in Texas just a few weeks ago. Reports of the agents whipping people turned out to be completely and utterly false.

We shouldn't be surprised. When their policies have failed and created chaos, the Biden administration has had a choice between doing what is right and making our government work better or shaming those expected to do more with less. The Biden administration has always chosen the latter. The administration routinely chooses to hide behind platitudes and broken promises instead of addressing the crises of their own making.

And because of that, the consequences of this administration's illogical and inconsistent policies will be felt by Americans for decades. If we didn't think it could get even worse, this administration's weak border policies impact every aspect of our Nation's immigration system.

But the problems go far beyond the crisis we have seen unfold over the last 9 months at the southwest border. Just last week, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas issued guidance ending worksite enforcement operations, which is the authority the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE, uses to crack down on businesses who employ illegal immigrants and to process illegal immigration workers for removal.

Without the threat of removing illegal workers, this new guidance creates a pull factor, or a magnet, attracting more people to the United States through illegal means. Illegal immigrants come with the knowledge that the consequences for breaking our laws under President Biden is minimal or nonexistent.

But this is a departure from what Democrats used to think. In 2005, then-Senator Barack Obama said:

We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, unchecked, and circumventing the line of people who are waiting patiently, diligently, and lawfully to become immigrants in this country.

In 2009, Senator Chuck Schumer said:

Illegal immigration is wrong, plain and simple . . . people who enter the United States without permission are illegal aliens and illegal aliens should not be treated the same as people who enter the U.S. legally.

And then, in 2006, then-Senator Joe Biden said:

Let me tell you something, folks, people are driving across that border with tons, tons--hear me, tons--of everything from byproducts from [drugs] to cocaine to heroin, and it's all coming up through corrupt Mexico.

So why the change? It is politics. They are bending to the pressure from the far left to abandon enforcement of our laws in this country. And just look where it got us. How about the allegations of poor living conditions, rampant COVID-19 infection, and sexual misconduct between unaccompanied alien children and Federal contractors at Department of Health and Human Services housing facilities?

Nearly 2 weeks ago, I sent a letter to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services regarding the countless reports of mistreatment of unaccompanied minors while in Health and Human Services custody until released to a parent or legal guardian.

Because our country continues to face public health emergencies brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, President Biden kept title 42 in place at the border except for one piece. He made a huge politically driven exception: Unaccompanied children could be admitted regardless of public health emergency. This decision led to an onslaught of unaccompanied minors arriving at the border.

This administration has been so consumed by ensuring that the President receives constant good press that they rushed tens of thousands of children through processing facilities and into the hands of adults who hadn't undergone background checks. What is more is Health and Human Services failed to conduct background checks on the contractors working at the housing facilities where unaccompanied minors stay before being released to parents.

The administration repeatedly cut corners and endangered the lives of children just so they could provide pictures of empty Customs and Border Protection processing facilities to the press.

At every turn, it has been about headlines over sound policy, and it has backfired. That is absolutely no way to go.

Oh, and by the way, I have yet to receive a response from Health and Human Services Secretary Becerra on my questions. It has been weeks.

Now there are reports of yet another memo coming out of DHS, one that would protect those who acquired U.S. citizenship by fraud.

U.S. citizenship is the most valuable status that we have in this country, and it is coveted all around the world. It is the reason millions of people immigrate to the United States every year and have done so for many, many generations. They come here with the hope to capitalize on the opportunities that this country provides, the freedoms and liberties afforded to its citizens.

Allowing people to be naturalized through fraudulent methods devalues our sacred privilege. It cheapens the inherent principles of our great country. I sincerely hope the administration will not actually consider such a drastic change in policy. But based on what we have seen so far, I wouldn't be surprised.

By the end of 2021, Customs and Border Protection will have apprehended nearly 2 million people attempting to illegally cross into the United States. July and August each saw apprehensions of up to 200,000 per month.

Folks, that is astounding. That is 2 million people who decided the dangerous journey through South and Central America was worth the risk to illegally enter the United States through our southwest border, rather than to adhere to the laws and regulations we instituted for legal means of immigration.

These numbers negatively impact the U.S. job market and our economy. They put a burden on the taxpayer through increased spending of Federal benefits. These numbers overwhelm-- and I am talking ``overwhelm''--our public schools and our hospitals, which are already maxed out.

Also, wide open borders are also an issue of national security, and you can bet that the longer the border remains open, the more drugs make their way into the United States. Customs and Border Protection has seized over 10,000 pounds of fentanyl this year, more than the last 3 years combined. Imagine the amount of illicit drugs President Biden's open border policy have added to our opioid epidemic.

And while the U.S. economy continues to suffer due to the actions taken by the Biden administration in response to COVID, the cartel economy is booming.

Earlier this year, CBP estimated the cartels make about an average of $14 million per day smuggling people and drugs into the United States. The cartels are running a multibillion-dollar business along our border, and the President is just letting it happen.

Never before have we experienced illegal immigration on this scale, and it can all be tracked back to the bad policy decisions of this President.

U.S. law allows for legal immigration, as well as pathways to work within the U.S. economy. When we allow people to continuously break our laws, we should not be surprised when more people join in. We should not be surprised when our laws no longer carry weight or authority in our country.

The fact that this administration is not only disregarding current law and regulation but actively advertising ways around them is incredible. It is lawless.

President Biden, or whoever in the White House is making these decisions, should be ashamed of themselves, putting people's lives in danger. The President could stop this today if he wanted to, but reverting to the policies put in place by the Trump administration would be an admission that those policies actually worked.

We should all pray that when the consequences of these bad policies trickle down to our communities across this country, our law enforcement officers are still there to clean up President Biden's senseless mess.

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