Reconciliation

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, the U.S. Border Patrol and our Immigration and Customs Enforcement have a complex and essential role in the lives of all Americans. They have a big mission. They arrest drug traffickers, they arrest terror suspects, they arrest human traffickers, they save exploited children, and they secure our border. This work is absolutely critical to our Nation's security.

Not long ago, Democrats actually agreed with all of those things I said. In 2019, Senator Schumer, the minority leader--this is what he said to NBC News.

He said:

ICE does some functions that are very much needed.

They don't seem to think that anymore. Now Senator Schumer is leading the charge to abolish ICE, and he wants to defund the Border Patrol. That is because today Democrats care more about protecting illegal immigrant criminals than protecting law-abiding American citizens.

For more than 2 months, Republicans have negotiated in good faith to fully fund critical law enforcement Agencies in this country. We are done negotiating. We are moving forward alone. Republicans are going to fund ICE and Border Patrol without a single Democrat vote. We are not going to concede a single one of their demands, and these are demands made by radical Senate Democrats.

The Senate is going to consider a budget resolution this week. The resolution is targeted, and it is focused. Here is what it does:

First, it fully funds and fully supports the men and women of ICE and Border Patrol.

Second, it funds them for the next 3 years.

Third, it gives them more resources than ever before. ICE receives more money to protect our communities. Border Patrol receives more money to secure our borders. Increased funding means more law enforcement. It means more illegal immigrants will be deported as criminals. It means more investigations into drug cartels and human traffickers. It means that our communities will be safer.

It is just common sense. Consider the commonsense policy changes that Republicans offered and Democrats refused to accept: $20 million to buy body cameras for agents to wear; Democrats voted no. More oversight of ICE spending; Democrats voted no. More money for deescalation training; Democrats voted no.

The Department of Homeland Security now has a new leader. It is Markwayne Mullin--we know him--from the great State of Oklahoma. At his confirmation hearing, now-Secretary Mullin committed to working with Democrats on commonsense reforms to immigration enforcement. Almost every Democrat still voted against his confirmation. Why? Not because they don't like him personally but because Democrats don't want to reform ICE. They want to abolish ICE. That is the difference. They want to abolish our Border Patrol. They want to defund law enforcement in America.

Here is what Democrats are still demanding: Senate Democrats want to ban ICE agents from wearing masks. Masks help protect agents and their families from being doxed by gangs of radical thugs. We know that open border groups are publishing the names and home addresses of agents online. These dangerous actions are one more reason that attacks on ICE agents have been rising dramatically.

These open border Democrats have a long-term goal. Their goal is to make life so miserable and so frightening for the families of ICE and Border Patrol agents that these highly trained professionals quit their jobs. The Democrats' long-term goal is to undermine the hiring of new agents and shut them down completely.

So, today, Republicans are moving forward to fund law enforcement.

To my Democratic colleagues, you have lost your war on law enforcement. You have failed to turn America into one big sanctuary country, as you have turned so many cities into sanctuary cities all across the country. You have failed to take America backward to the days of open borders by the Democrats, when more than 10 million illegal immigrants flooded into our country on the Democrats' watch. Under Republican leadership, zero illegal immigrants have been released into our country now in almost a year.

Republicans want ICE and Border Patrol to be able to do their job. Republicans want law enforcement to be funded. We want American citizens and American communities to be safe. Americans deserve safety and security. This week, Republicans are delivering it.

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