House Republicans' Legislative Efforts This Week

Floor Speech

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to address something that happened in this Chamber earlier this week, something that we haven't done or seen in over a century in this country, and that is the impeachment of a Cabinet member.

Impeached was Secretary Mayorkas, Homeland Security, for ignoring his duties, and by ignoring his duties, creating a situation which I think is the biggest crisis in this country in my lifetime.

That, of course, concerns his inability to address the huge problems at the border. I will remind the American public that only 4 years ago during the final year of the prior administration, the number of people being let in this country at the southern border bounced back and forth between about 6,000 and 25,000.

A good estimate of the number of people who came here in the last month is 37,000, so it has gone up by a factor of about 18 to 1.

Not only have this many people crossed the border--think about that. I guessed 37,000. In addition to this many people crossing the border-- because around the world, it is known the United States is not enforcing our border--we have people dying in the Pacific Ocean trying to get around the wall over there. We have people dehydrating in the Arizona desert. We have people drowning in the Rio Grande, all horrific instances in and of themselves, because of the inability to address people coming across our border.

I have been told by law enforcement that the price of fentanyl in this country is as low as it has ever been--it is a matter of the law of supply and demand.

We have 108,000 Americans dying of illegal drug overdoses every year, twice as many people as died in 12 years in Vietnam.

We have, through our negligence, created wildly wealthy drug cartels, wealthier than ever. I have been at the border at least eight times, and every time I hear the Border Patrol is under the impression that the Mexican cartels--which are currently corrupting the Mexican Government--are making more money allowing people across the border than they even are selling drugs. A complete disaster.

Along with this 300,000-plus people who are let in every month are 8,000 to 10,000 unaccompanied minors. There was a time when people in this body used to care a little bit about breaking up families, but that is 8,000 to 10,000 unaccompanied minors.

There was a time where we checked DNA tests to see whether these minors were related in any way to perhaps aunts or uncles who claim they were related. We stopped that policy.

The New York Times said that at one time--I think this number is a little bit high, but they had lost 83,000 unaccompanied minors in this country.

I personally think it is more like 50,000 or 60,000, but in any event, can you imagine losing track of 50,000 or 60,000 unaccompanied minors?

As a result of the negligence taking place at the border, we have all of these disasters, and I would argue it is creating a situation in which I think in the final year, well over 2 million new people were let in the United States, some of which are suspected terrorists from all over the world.

It will take the United States perhaps decades to recover. Again, there are so many of them, we are incapable of doing a background check.

We are capable of doing a background check on crimes committed in the United States and crimes committed in Canada, but that is about it.

You hear anecdotal evidence of crimes, including sexual assault being committed by people, when you talk to local district attorneys.

Again, the Biden administration doesn't care. I think the reason the Biden administration doesn't care and the reason Secretary Mayorkas doesn't care--when they could so easily go back to a stay in Mexico policy or wait in Mexico policy pending an asylum hearing--is because they want to change America.

President Obama said he wanted to fundamentally change America, and that is what you are going to get when you have people from all around the globe coming here.

We want to point out that this is hardly the time in which it is necessary or cruel to turn people around. In the last 4 years, we have had more people sworn in as legal new citizens than any 4-year period in the last 100 years, at least, so it is not like we are being mean or overly strident.

People are coming here all the time and finding ways to become citizens completely legally. The only reason for allowing this deluge of people in here is if you do want to fundamentally change America, invite people who do not understand the background of freedom and of limited government that is necessary of our new citizens to keep the Republic which our forefathers gave us.

In any event, I thank this body for impeaching Secretary Mayorkas. I urge the Senate to take up that impeachment because it is mandatory that the people of this body--and by this body, I mean both the House and Senate--do whatever we can to send the message that ignoring the crisis at our border can no longer be tolerated.

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