Border Security

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, Republicans are ready to move forward on funding critical components of our government--Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.

I heard the minority leader here on the floor of the Senate a few minutes ago, and it sounds like he is continuing, as the Democrats have been doing, standing with illegal immigrant criminals, protecting illegal immigrant criminals rather than protecting American citizens.

What we are proposing and the bill that we will be discussing today is a bill that is targeted and focused, and it is a vote for safe communities, not for criminals--specifically, criminal illegal aliens. It is a vote for secure borders.

Safe communities and secure borders are the top priorities of American citizens. People want to live in safe communities. They want secure borders. The top priority of the Democrats doesn't seem to be that at all. It seems it is to defund border security, defund law enforcement in this country. That is what they have been for years-- protesting in the streets: Defund the police. Get rid of ICE.

We need safety and security for the American people.

What we have seen after month and month and month of Democratic obstruction is very clear: Democrats want to go back to the days of the chaos of open borders, people streaming across the southern border into our Nation. Republicans are not prepared to allow them to do it.

The American people deserve to feel safe at home, safe in their communities. We deserve to have a homeland that is secure. That is why I am saying it is time to pass the Secure America Act.

Earlier this month, U.S. Border Patrol secured a historic record. The record is that for a full year--now that we have a Republican majority in the House and the Senate and Donald Trump in the White House--for a full year, not a single illegal immigrant was released into this country now that we have ended catch-and-release. Catch-and-release no longer exists. Our border is more secure than ever.

But security, of course, is not ever guaranteed. The border is secure because enforcement today is strong and there is a commitment by this administration to enforce the law. But the danger hasn't disappeared. The danger still exists, because just a week ago, U.S. Border Patrol agents and Texas Highway Patrol, working together, arrested 12 illegal immigrants in this country in Southwest Texas. The arrest occurred late at night on a private ranch near our southern border. Among those arrested are six Chinese nationals. All of them were military age, and all of them were captured wearing military-style camouflage--in our country, six Chinese nationals illegally here wearing military-style camouflage. We are not talking about kind of ordinary illegal immigrants here. They are what law enforcement classifies as ``special interest aliens.'' Now, a special interest alien is a noncitizen whose country of origin or travel history raises concerns of serious national security, a threat.

Special-interest aliens are subject to enhanced security scrutiny, as they should be. These six Chinese nationals wanted to avoid getting caught. We still don't know who they are. We don't know where they came from. We don't know how they got here. We don't know who they planned to meet or where they planned to go next from this remote-site ranch in Texas.

This situation reminds us of a core security principle: National security starts with border security.

Congress cannot allow Democrats to strangle the resources that the Border Patrol needs to keep our Nation safe. The U.S. Border Patrol stands on the frontlines of America's safety. Those are the men and women--the people in Border Patrol--who patrol areas that are rugged and remote, and they put their lives on the line for the rest of us.

They continue to secure our borders. They keep illegal immigrant criminals out of our country. And they do dangerous and diligent work because they know it is what makes the American people safer.

Joe Biden and the Democrats shamelessly failed to secure the border. Joe Biden and the Democrats undermined the men and women of our Border Patrol.

They turned our southern border into a turnstile. Over 10 million illegal immigrants entered our country in those 4 years of the Biden administration. There was no enforcement of the law at the border. It was only abandonment of our border.

President Trump and Republicans have the common sense and the commitment to secure the border. Through the Working Families Tax Cut law, we invested $170 billion in border security. That is the largest border security investment in American history. Republicans funded the border wall, and we ended Joe Biden's ridiculous catch-and-release plan. We restored the program of ``Remain in Mexico'' and cracked down on the cartels. We gave Border Patrol the tools and the resources they need to do the job to keep our Nation safe, and Republicans remain resolutely committed to keeping our Nation safe.

By contrast, we heard it here again from the minority leader today: Democrats continue their commitment to open borders and to defunding the police.

Democrats in the Senate right now, this very moment, are obstructing the funding of Border Patrol. They have been doing it for months, month after month after month. This has gone on here since January.

Democrats are choosing protecting illegal immigrants over protecting the American people. They want to defund the police. They want to defund American security. And they are choosing open borders over a secure nation.

That is what their party has become. Listen to their candidates running around the country, running in primary elections. It is a run to the far left--the radical, extreme, dangerous, scary left--who want open borders and want to get rid of immigration control enforcement.

They want to stand with the criminals and the cartels and the foreign adversaries, who right now are watching what we are doing in Washington, DC.

Defunding the Border Patrol is a dream to every criminal in the world who wishes to take advantage of innocent Americans. Why in the world are Democrats standing with them?

If we are serious about safe and secure communities, we must fully fund border security. Democrats will continue to vote against it.

Republicans are standing with the Secure America Act, and we are going to vote on that. It is going to fully fund Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement and do it for the next 3 years. This is going to give law enforcement the tools that they need to keep illegal immigrant criminals and the cartels and the terrorist suspects out of our country. Republicans support the United States Border Patrol. We will deliver the resources that they need to give the brave men and women of our Nation who are committed to the safety and security of the American people what they need to do their job and to keep us safe.

That is what this is all about. It is, Who are you going to stand with? Who are you going to protect? The Democrats wanting to stand with and protect illegal immigrant criminals? Republicans standing with the safety and security of the American people?

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