Important Issues Facing America

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROSE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Utah, Vice Chairman Moore, for yielding and for claiming the time this morning to discuss these important issues facing our Nation.

Madam Speaker, let me be clear. The President has the existing authority to close the southern border today. No act of Congress is necessary, no new law is needed.

Section 212 of the Immigration and Nationality Act authorizes the President to, ``suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens,'' whose entry he finds ``would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.''

This is authority that has been used in the past successfully by previous Presidents to gain control of the border when it has lost control.

His refusal to do so signals his unwillingness to secure our border, despite Customs and Border Protection reporting more than 8 million illegal encounters nationwide, including 361 on the terror watch list since President Biden took office, in just 3 short years.

Let's be honest with the American people, Madam Speaker. If the President seriously thought an act by Congress was necessary to secure the border, and if he was actually willing to do so, why didn't he do it when Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate?

The answer is simple. It would go against the White House's policy and the President's policy and desire to keep our borders open and let into this country millions of people illegally.

As a candidate, President Biden made this clear. He said it multiple times on the campaign trail. So this isn't a policy failure. It is the policy of President Biden.

Now that it is an election year and the majority of Americans believe the situation at the southern border is a crisis, according to at least recent CBS News Polls and others, President Biden is attempting to put a Band-Aid on what is, in my opinion, a bullet wound, and worse yet, a self-inflicted bullet wound.

Except, attached to that Band-Aid, are multiple, unnecessary, and costly items that will only make matters at our borders worse.

The Senate border bill isn't a border bill, it is an immigration bill that legitimizes President Biden's open-border policies and steals money from our grandchildren and great-grandchildren and relatives far into the future.

On behalf of all sensible Tennesseans whom I represent, I could not in good faith vote for this bill in its current form. Rather, we must enact serious and stringent border security reforms, like the ones passed by the House almost 1 year ago in H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act.

New law is not needed in order to empower the President to deal with the problem at our southern border, but rather, to force the President to deal with the problem at our southern border.

Throwing money at the problem won't solve it. Passing new laws won't solve it, unless the President is either forced or develops a willingness to enforce the laws of this country and stop the flow of illegal immigrants and illicit drugs into this country, his proposals will only make matters worse.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in opposing any legislation that will only memorialize or place into law the policies of this administration to allow illegals to flow into the country.

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