Securing the Southern Border
Floor Speech
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Mr. TIFFANY. Madam Speaker, I am assuming this mike is live. Is that correct? It is, okay. Thank you very much and thank you for sitting in the Chair tonight. We appreciate you being here during this period of time.
I think the person that just appeared before us said he does not know what Republicans stand for. Republicans stand for secure borders. We stand for a strong national security. We stand for an America that we represent Americans first, and that is what we stand for here tonight.
Madam Speaker, the Biden administration has turned the United States Government, our government, whether you are a Republican, Democrat, or any other affiliation, into the largest human trafficking operation in the history of the world. And it is so sad to see that happen. It doesn't have to be that way.
Let's go back to the January 20, just a little over a year ago. What happened?
Remain in Mexico was ended. Border wall construction was ended. Catch-and-release was initiated. And that is exactly what we have seen in our country now over the last year.
I am going to share my story, if I may, tonight. I have been here less than 2 years. The first trip that I took was down to the Arizona border in June of 2020. I saw the successes down there. I saw local units of government working with State and Federal Government to secure our borders, to make sure that those that chose to come into our country legally, they would get in line, and they would go through the process. It was under control. I saw that border wall construction down in Arizona.
Fast forward to just a little less than a year ago, April of 2021. I go down to the Rio Grande, out of control. And from what I understand, it is even worse now than April of 2021.
From there, I went down to Panama at the behest of the Border Patrol saying, You should see that this is not just about Mexico, this is not just about the Northern Triangle. There are people coming from all over the world.
So I went down to the Darien Gap in Panama at the end of May 2021, and what I saw was breathtaking. People coming out of the jungle, having to be wheelbarrowed to the medical tent. Hearing stories of the estimates that 10 percent of the people that tried to get through that jungle--some of the most dense jungle you will find on all of the face of the Earth--10 percent of the people were dying as a result of the actions that a President took on January 20, 2021.
The border is open. That was the message to those people. And it has wreaked havoc on people's lives that thought, If I can just make it to America. Many of them have not done that.
And as the chairman said, we have got an organization that is getting fully funded by the United Nations. What?
We put 25 percent of the money into the United Nations?
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Mr. TIFFANY. The International Organization for Migration, IOM, or sometimes it goes by OIM, I saw them at the Rio Grande. I saw them at the Darien Gap. I saw them at Fort McCoy when the Afghan evacuees came to our country. IOM, every step of the way, giving people remittances, giving them debit cards, being funded by you and me, the American public.
We are funding those people coming here to the United States of America at the behest of an organization that believes in open borders and does not believe in the sovereignty not just of the United States, but of any country on the face of this Earth.
It is time for our Committee on the Judiciary, Chairman Nadler, to have hearings about what this organization is all about. Now, I am not going to hold my breath expecting that to happen, but that is what should happen. And if the American people want to know the truth, you are going to have to take action in this election year of 2022, if you want this to change. Because it is evident by the Secretary, as designated by President Biden, Secretary Mayorkas, he is going to do nothing about it.
We heard it in the video that we saw recently, when the Border Patrol agents proudly stood up and they said, You are the reason, Secretary Mayorkas, for this problem, and you could stop it now.
So here is what we stand for--to the gentleman that was here earlier--here is what we stand for:
We stand for legal immigration. I think about members of my family, my extended family, that came into this country recently, legally. Did it the right way; paid the money. And they didn't pay the money to a cartel. They paid it to the United States Government to do it the right way. That is what we stand for as legal immigration.
We stand for stopping the flow of drugs that are killing Americans in record numbers.
We stand for respecting our borders. We stand with our Border Patrol and all those people that are in security that just want to make sure that people come into our country legally.
I stand for an America that is great. I stand with America first.
And if the people of the United States of America want to bring this under control, this scourge that has hit our country as a result of the actions of a President on January 20, 2021, you need to stand with us in November of 2022.
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