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Floor Speech
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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, this week, President Trump called attention and paid tribute to families who lost loved ones--loved ones who were killed by illegal immigrant criminals. Now, these are known as Angel Families. On Monday, President Trump declared February 23 National Angel Family Day.
On Tuesday, during the State of the Union, when we were both there, the President honored a heartbroken Angel mother--a mother who was there in the audience from the State of Texas. It was her 16-year-old daughter, Lizbeth Medina, who was brutally murdered by an illegal immigrant. Lizbeth's killer had a criminal background and should not have been in our country.
Just like Laken Riley, the nursing student who had been brutally murdered by an illegal immigrant, Lizbeth dreamed also of becoming a nurse. Think of all the lives that could have been helped and saved had hers not been stolen away.
Republicans are determined to ensure that no more families are forced to feel this sort of pain.
During his State of the Union Address, President Trump asked a single and powerful question. He said to the entire Chamber, everyone-- Republicans, Democrats, everyone there--he said: If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support.
He then presented the statement to the American people. This is the statement. He said:
The first duty of the American Government is to protect American citizens--not illegal [immigrants].
So what happened? Republicans stood up and cheered, as they should and should every American citizen, for putting American citizens first. Not a single Democrat, that I saw, stood up. They sat on their hands. They sat in the Chamber. They refused to stand to the important statement of ``The first duty of the American Government is to protect American citizens--not illegal aliens.'' To me, that revealing moment said it all.
Now, I have said it many times before, and I will say it again: Democrats care more about illegal immigrant criminals. Every one of them on the other side of the aisle cares more about illegal immigrant criminals than they do about the safety and the security of the American people. That is wrong, Mr. President. That is not what our country is all about. Department of Homeland Security
Mr. President, we are now 13 days into the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. It is another Democrat shutdown. They are the ones that shut it down--a shutdown against American safety and security. That is who those people are. That is what they believe in. That is why they would not stand, the other night, during the President's State of the Union Address, to support American citizens as opposed to illegal immigrant criminals.
But the Department of Homeland Security stands between illegal immigrant criminals and the American people, between terrorists and American citizens. And yet this is the very Department that the Democrats have decided to shut down.
We funded 96 percent of the Government through the usual approach that we do, the Appropriations Committee, and they refused that last 4 percent of Government because that is the 4 percent that deals with the Department of Homeland Security.
So today these heroes that protect American lives are working without pay. It is wrong. We are talking about TSA agents, Secret Services agents, the Coast Guard that patrols our coastal waters, our Nation's cyber security--260,000 people in all working without pay because the Democrats have shut down the Department of Homeland Security or, at least, refused to pay them. They are still working, but they are not getting paid because of the Democrats.
Funding the Department of Homeland Security is about protecting American citizens. That is the fundamental role of Government. It is not coddling illegal immigrant criminals, which is what the Democrats seem to want to do, especially criminals who brutally murder American citizens.
Republicans have offered fair terms to fully and immediately fund the Department of Homeland Security. What do the Democrats say? Well, they continue to make unreasonable and unserious demands. Democrats want the Department of Homeland Security to remain closed. It is very evident from their statements.
Democrats have submitted a laundry list of demands in order for the Government to fund the Department of Homeland Security. They demand harsh restrictions on cooperation between the Federal Government, State governments, and local officials.
Mr. President, you would want them all to work together. I mean, wouldn't it be better if we coordinated efforts at the State, local, and national levels? Of course.
Democrats are demanding an outright ban on immigration enforcement at so-called sensitive locations. So they have a list of sensitive locations. One, astonishingly--this is the first time this has ever appeared in any of their lists of demands, but it is now here--they want a sensitive location for protection of illegal immigrants to be polling places.
Why are illegal immigrants in polling places? It is illegal for them to vote.
That is who the Democrats are. That is who they are supporting. That is what they are trying to do--protect illegal immigrant criminals. Their demands are driven not by the protection and safety of the American people. It is for the protection and safety of illegal immigrants, and it is just flatout wrong. It flies in the face of who we are as American citizens.
The Democrat demands are driven not by the traditional Democrats of yesterday. Oh, no, they are driven by the extreme Democrats of today. And it is the extreme Democrats of today who have captured and are controlling today's Democrat Party. The Democrats of yesterday are gone. This is a party under the control of the radical left--a party that calls for defunding the police, a party that encourages defying the law, and a party that refuses to stand when they are asked to support the citizens of America.
The Democrats' demands are reckless, they are radical, and they are dangerous. The Democrats' demands compromise public safety. They fly in the face of the rule of law. They turn America into a sanctuary country. That is not what the American people want.
The danger is real. The cartels remain a serious and deadly threat. Just this week, in Mexico, they launched a violent new drug war. This violence started after the Mexican military, encouraged and assisted by the United States, eliminated one of Mexico's most powerful drug lords.
As the cartels spread chaos across Mexico, they also seek to harm law enforcement officers inside America--inside our own country. ABC News has now reported that the Mexican cartels have placed cash bounties on ICE and Border Patrol officers living and working here in America, cartels paying for damage--physical damage--of ICE and Border Patrol agents serving here at home.
They actually have a payment list. They offer $2,000 to dox an agent, including photos of the agent's family or details about the agent's family. They are paying $5,000 to $10,000 to kidnap or assault an enforcement officer, and $50,000 to murder a high-ranking official. That is what the Mexican cartels are up to these days, at a time that the Democrats here stand for the illegal immigrants but remain seated in terms of support for the American people.
So think about it. Criminal cartels in Mexico have put a price on the heads of our law enforcement officers here at home in America, and yet the pro-crime Democrats here in the U.S. Senate, as part of their list of demands, are demanding that ICE officers remove their masks in the face of such assaults, making it easier for the cartels to get what they want, to go after their families.
But Republicans are not at all going to accept these dangerous demands from the Democrats--demands that make our communities less safe and demands that put our enforcement officers at increased risk.
Republicans here in this body and across the country and most American citizens agree with President Trump: It is the No. 1 duty of any government--and certainly ours--to protect its citizens, not illegal aliens. And Republicans will stand every day for the safety and security of our Nation's citizens.
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