Failed Border Policies

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROSE. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding tonight.

Mr. Speaker, Vice President Kamala Harris' tenure as border czar has been a complete and absolute failure. For the folks who claim she was never in charge of the border, I will read President Biden's own words from March of 2021.

He specifically assigned Vice President Harris with the task of ``stemming the migration to our southern border.''

I understand the White House would like to rewrite that bit of history, but a simple Google search will show that it isn't just House Republicans calling her the border czar. She was widely referred to as such by the mainstream media at the time.

Since her appointment, Harris has gone to the border only once. Even worse, she never spoke to either of the past two chiefs of Border Patrol.

While the Vice President was failing to meet her new responsibility, our Commander in Chief was busy undoing the successful border policies of President Trump.

Here is where that has gotten us. More than 10 million people have tried to cross into the United States illegally in less than 4 years. More than 52,000 illegal immigrants with criminal backgrounds have tried to enter our Nation illegally. Those are just the ones we know about.

Keep in mind more than 2 million people managed to evade Border Patrol under this administration. That is more got-aways under Biden- Harris than in the previous decade combined.

This is a direct result of open-border policies and a refusal to uphold the immigration laws already on the books.

In July alone, there was a daily average of 3,300 encounters at the border. Former President Obama's DHS Secretary noted a few years ago that any more than 1,000 encounters per day overwhelms the system.

Mr. Speaker, the border crisis is far from over, and it continues to threaten our national security. In the last 2 years, Border Patrol officials have seized an average of 2,000 pounds of fentanyl every month coming across the border, enough to kill 458 million people. The real question is: How much fentanyl did they fail to seize that is currently killing our citizens?

More than 350 people who are on the terror watch list have been stopped trying to cross the southern border.

A recent report revealed that 99 of them were released into the country after being stopped at the border.

It was also widely reported this summer that more than 50 illegal immigrants with ties to ISIS were on the loose after being released from custody, all of this on Vice President Kamala Harris' watch.

This week, House Republicans will bring to the floor two pieces of critical legislation. The first is a bill to ensure that any illegal immigrant who is convicted of a sex offense or crimes involving stalking, child abuse, and neglect are deported.

The second is a piece of legislation that claims to end the free hotels, healthcare, and cash given to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants being housed in our Nation's major cities.

It is well past time to stop incentivizing illegal immigration. It is time to support what the American people overwhelmingly support, immigration done the legal way.

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