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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHMITT. Mr. President, I want to set the stage for where we are at this moment, what just happened. Republicans voted to move forward on a bipartisan appropriations bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which includes, among other things, ICE funding, TSA funding, FEMA funding, and the Democrats voted no.

Now, that is not all. Right about now, there is a bus leaving. There is a bus leaving the Capitol grounds and headed for an airport. Democrats are on that bus who just voted to defund the paycheck of the TSA agent making $40,000 a year, to hop on a plane, funded by your tax dollars, to go to Munich, to go to Europe, and badmouth American foreign policy. They will be sipping wine with the global elites, telling them: Don't listen to President Trump. That is not who we are.

I have got news for you: The American people have weighed in, and they did in November of 2024, and this new direction of foreign policy is the ascendant view.

But outside of the foreign policy debate, just how offensive is it that they voted to defund DHS and are going to fly transatlantic on the taxpayer dime and trash talk America.

That won't get reported probably many places. The corrupt media covers for the Democrats day in and day out around here. That is one of the things I have learned in my 3 years in the Senate. The hypocrisy is insane. That is where they are headed.

In a broader sense, where are we? For my Republican colleagues, I hope you appreciate what this is, this moment, because this isn't some isolated incident. This is a 10-year struggle for commonsense Americans who have pushed back against a radical open borders policy that has been pushed by the Democrats.

President Trump won in 2016 on a few issues, but the electrical cord that began when he came down the escalator, that continues to this day, is taking on illegal immigration and the forgotten men and women of this country whose jobs were initially displaced when the failed policies of the politicians of this town sent their jobs overseas--the towns that I grew up in--and then when they were looking for new jobs, their wages were suppressed, and their jobs went to illegal immigrants. The Democrats have never understood that. They have never understood that Americans were upset about that.

Then for the 4 years previous to this, Joe Biden's term, Joe Biden let in 15 million--million--people. One million is a lot of people. Five million is a lot of people. Fifteen million people came into this country illegally. We don't know who most of them are. We don't even know where they are. What we do know is that literally tens of thousands of them are murderers; hundreds of thousands of them are violent criminals.

The left has tried to destroy this country through this open borders policy because we are all citizens of the world. Borders are just arbitrary lines on a map. That is where the modern Democrat Party is. They don't actually believe that America, as a sovereign country, should be able to tell people who can come and who has to leave.

So that is what this whole thing is about. It isn't about Minnesota or some recent event; this is about the Democrats failing to accept the verdict from the American people--that they sent President Trump back into the Oval Office to fix mass migration, to take on mass migration with mass deportations.

Regardless of the antics that happened here today on their ``no'' vote and flying with the globalists in Europe, it will not change that agenda. It is happening whether you like it or not.

Thank God we front-loaded in the Working Families Tax Cut money for deportations and tens of billions for detention centers. Two hundred thousand Americans have applied to be ICE agents because they love this great country, and they don't want it destroyed.

This is another hissy fit along the way by the Democrats who refuse to accept the political reality that they lost on this issue. So as far as I am concerned, we can spend the next year debating this on this floor. This is a home game for Republicans. But what you are doing to the American people, what you are doing to FEMA, what you are doing to the people who rely on their communities to be rebuilt, the TSA agents that go to work every day, the Coast Guard, is shameful.

Joe Biden opened up our border. It is literally unprecedented in American history that a President would say: We are not going to enforce our immigration laws. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama deported millions of people.

This is an effort by the Democrats--this debate--to kneecap immigration enforcement, to kneecap ICE. They lost the issue on the front end of the election. Now they want to make it so hard for ICE to do their jobs that deportations come to a halt. That is the truth, and anybody in this town who tells you otherwise is just spinning.

They don't want people deported because they are importing a voter base that they think will give them power. They are not even hiding behind this anymore. They have lost the argument with American citizens, and they think that if they flood this country with illegal immigrants--and by the way, you shouldn't have to prove you are an American citizen to vote. That is their position. You shouldn't have to show photo ID, which is broadly supported even among Democrat voters. Why? Why would they do that? Even though their voters don't want that, even though their voters want photo ID to be established when you vote, why would they be opposed to that? Because they want people who shouldn't be able to vote--illegal immigrants or fraudsters--to vote for them. That is the truth.

So we have now the most secure border in the history of our country, and we are trying to execute on the immigration laws that we have on the books that have been voted for by Republicans and Democrats alike, and Presidents of both parties have enforced those laws.

This is about the 21-point plan. If you think it is such a good idea, put that 21-point plan on the floor, and let's vote on it. They won't do it because they will lose. They know what it does. It ties up ICE's ability--which, by the way, they already have to abide by due process. There are already warrants. They know all this. They want to confuse the issue--mostly because they believe in open borders but also because this Trump derangement syndrome is really a hard thing to kick, a really difficult thing for them to kick.

We heard people being talked about here on the Senate floor. I want to mention a few names that no Democrat will ever utter: Laken Riley, Rachel Morin, Jocelyn Nungaray, Kayla Hamilton. These are American daughters, American sisters who were murdered by illegal aliens.

By the way, Laken Riley's murderer wasn't a previously convicted violent criminal. So if that is your test of who should be deported, it didn't help Laken Riley's family.

My priority--and the reason why I have been on this floor so many times about this issue--my priority is for Americans. Our immigration laws are put in place for one reason: to benefit America and Americans.

The rhetoric that has come from the left on this and my Democrat colleagues--we talk about, why was Minnesota a flashpoint? It is the sanctuary city status, the nine sanctuary jurisdictions in this country. In them, ICE agents are 590 times more likely to be assaulted. Since January of last year, there has been a 1,347-percent increase in assaults against ICE officers, a 3,200-percent increase in vehicular attacks. And don't tell me Tim Walz doesn't have something to do with that, and don't tell me that Mayor Frey doesn't have something to do with that, with the rhetoric. Even Senators on this floor, you know, called it Trump's secret police and the gestapo and Nazis. Knock it off. I hope you know better, but some people are actually listening to you. You have created conditions where confrontations are more likely.

There are deportations happening all over this country, in red States and blue States alike. You don't see what you see in sanctuary jurisdictions because they are cooperating.

Let's be clear what sanctuary status really means to the American people, OK? Local authorities will not tell ICE agents when illegal alien rapists are being let out of prison. That is what it means practically. They hate Donald Trump so much and they believe in open borders so much or they want new voters in this country for them so much, they crave for power so much that they are willing to let an illegal immigrant rapist back out on the streets.

A murderer. A burglar. Nope, we are not telling you. And oh, by the way, we are not going to send 9-1-1 to help you if you have a problem.

This is insane.

So to my Republican colleagues, let's put all of those issues in front of the American people. I am not afraid of this debate at all. Bring it on.

What is sad is that the Democrats continue to play the Ole game here. They negotiate a deal, and then they hold it up. We saw this with the longest government shutdown in American history just a couple months ago, and now here we are again with DHS funding. Meanwhile, they are sipping wine and eating caviar in Europe. I went to Munich last year.

It is also worth pointing out, by the way, that 2 years ago almost to the day, we were here. Those of us who thought that ``bipartisan immigration plan'' was terrible--and it was, which is why it fell apart; it made illegal immigration easier--we had to hold the floor all weekend long--in a bipartisan affair, by the way--to get Ukraine funding done in time for Chuck Schumer to deliver $60 billion to Ukraine at the Munich Security Conference.

What I have learned in 3 years here is that the Munich Security Conference for Democrats is like the Super Bowl. This draw to commiserate with fellow Wilsonians is a powerful drug. I don't know why in the world Democrats get to vote no on this and fly to Munich.

If the American people had any idea what went on in this town, they would be way more upset than they are right now. They expect us to come up here and to work on their behalf, for Americans, for the American people, for Laken Riley's family, for Kayla Hamilton, who was autistic, who was raped and murdered in her apartment for the $3 that she had on her so an illegal immigrant could go to Target with his buddy and spend the 3 bucks.

Why don't we hear about those stories? Because it is not convenient to the narrative.

That is what we are fighting against and who we are fighting for-- that is who I am fighting for--and if it were up to me, we would be on this floor every single day fighting for Kayla Hamilton, fighting for Laken Riley, and for the countless other daughters of this country who have been raped and murdered by illegal immigrants.

Todd Lyons, earlier today, testified--OK, just to tell you how sick this is--that in Colorado, ICE wanted to perform an operation in Colorado to deport illegal alien Tren de Aragua gang members from an apartment complex. So they tried to work with the local authorities in that sanctuary State. Guess what happened. Protesters were there, but the illegal immigrant gang members were all gone. They had been tipped off.

I actually can't believe this is happening in my country. I can't believe somebody's instinct with this crazy, suicidal empathy would be to protect an illegal immigrant gang member who could very easily and has--there are some dangerous people--murdered a family member and terrorized a community. They would rather tip them off than to have them deported. These are the facts.

So what should we do?

Here is what I think: I think it is actually an opportunity for us to strengthen our immigration laws. The Democrats want to kneecap ICE. I have submitted the Protect America Act for debate. It would do four things:

One, it would end sanctuary city status for good.

Two, it would increase penalties for illegal entry and illegal reentry. A lot of these crimes are being committed by people who have been deported and they come back. That has happened.

By the way, if you come here illegally, I think you ought to have jail time. As a former prosecutor as the attorney general of Missouri, I can tell you that people responded to incentives. They knew when we had a partnership with Federal prosecutors in St. Louis that, if they were being busted for a Federal crime, they were going to jail. If it were a State crime and if Kim Gardner--the Soros-funded prosecutor in St. Louis at the time--were handling the case, they literally would laugh in the back seat of the cop car because they knew they would be out later that day.

No more catch and release. If we are serious about it, no more catch- and-release. It is over.

Three, if you assault an ICE officer, we are increasing those penalties too. Protest all you want--for God's sake, this is America, and we have different points of view--but you don't get to interfere in the operations of Federal law enforcement. Even if you really believe you are wearing the white hat, you don't get to do that.

Fourth, as for this NGO network that has been created and that is fomenting this vitriol and the operations that are putting ICE officers and citizens at risk, they need to lose their nonprofit status.

So, if we are serious about the problem, that is what we will do. But I will tell you what we are not going to do: We are not succumbing no matter how long it takes--if it is one day. Let's just say my Democrat friends come back from Munich and they feel really good about themselves because a bunch of European elites has told them all the things they want to hear and vice versa. We are not coming back here and going to make it harder for ICE to do their jobs. We are not doing it. I will do everything in my power--and I know a lot of other folks on my side of the aisle will do it too--to prevent that from ever happening because the American people saw what a disaster it was to have Democrats in charge of this country. We had a secure border. Joe Biden literally unsecured that border on day one, and we had 15 million people come here illegally.

We are not going back. The American people saw that. They voted for President Trump. He was very clear about it. This wasn't a footnote in his campaign. This was a central theme. You may not like it, but that is what our Republic is about.

For all the talk of saving democracy and sticking up for democracy I hear from the other side, it is all nonsense. If they actually believed that, they would respect the fact that the American people voted for this, that they voted for deportations. I know that in the ``woke'' left world, that is a dirty word. It is not where I come from, not in Missouri. People believe in common sense. They don't think you should get to break the law like that and get away with it.

So I don't know when--you know, I guess we will be back here in a week or something, but the reality is not going to change no matter how much Chuck Schumer tries to villainize ICE agents. No matter how many times I hear my colleagues from the other side try to stir up people, it will not change this very basic reality: We have front-loaded money for deportations, and those deportations will continue, and there is nothing you can do about it.

Now, if you want to make a proposal to stop that, put it on the floor. You will lose, but I want them to know and also my colleagues that I am 100-percent committed to this. It is central to the idea of being a sovereign country. No sane country in the history of the world would do this. By the way, in speaking of heading over to Europe, ask them how mass migration is working out for them. They have done it, and it isn't working.

So, if you have got any advice coming back from that side of the Atlantic, I am not really interested on this topic or on censorship. Maybe you can deliver the message that they ought to step up for their own defense of their own continent in a more meaningful way. Now, that might not make you popular over there, but that is the message that I delivered when I went over last year.

But as it relates to illegal immigration, the deportations will continue, and I hope the American people understand that the people who just voted to defund ICE are sipping champagne in Europe, bad-mouthing the United States of America's foreign policy. That is who they are. That is the reality.

This debate will continue. But as far as I am concerned, Republicans, we should be playing offense here. Let's strengthen our immigration laws. Let's treat this as seriously of a problem for our country as it really is.

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