Protecting Our Southern Border

Floor Speech

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, before we deal with the purpose of this speech, I would like to make some observations about changes that have been made in the last few weeks and other rapidly changing aspects of American life.

One of the few positive observations I have made since I was a Congressman is the freedom people have normally had to see their Congressmen. Eccentric people can stand at the base of the Capitol steps a few yards away and hand out their pamphlets, nice and free. Easy to meet their Congressmen, for those of us who like to walk outside and not use the tunnel.

Now, a chain-link fence stands around the Capitol with razor wire on top. Let's be honest. After about midnight on January 7, I think most of us felt pretty safe.

Now, we are almost a month later, and we still have National Guard folks in full combat, ready to protect us. We have the wire on top of the walls, as well as Constitution and Independence Avenues shut down.

I feel like I am in East Germany in the 1970s. I am not sure exactly what East Germany was like, but that is how I kind of visualize it, around maybe their parliament or whatever, fencing, police, always afraid of the people.

It is a fitting background for our brave new world order in which our high-tech oligarchs are censoring ideas. Perhaps that is this background to the new censor regime. It seems almost appropriate.

Our high-tech oligarchs are censoring ideas which are unpopular with the wealthy and powerful in our country. Eventually, we will need some antitrust enforcement or legislation to open up Twitter and allow American citizens to hear all points of view, including points of view that the great and powerful of our country do not want to have heard.

I would like to thank the German, Mexican, and French Governments for their support as Americans try to regain their roots as a country with a free flow of ideas.

In the meantime, my plea to the Speaker and majority leader is please tear down the walls around this Capitol and begin to undo the damage done to our freedoms.

Now, back to the purpose of the speech.

One more time last week, I returned to our southern border, and already, we are seeing the results of, I think, reckless comments made by our Chief Executive.

We are getting to the point where we have had 300 unaccompanied minors a day crossing our southwest border. That is because we have had a President who has made comments that indicate that the United States is not sincere in protecting our southern border.

It does result in more money and more presence for drug cartels at the Southern border. So people understand, people do not just walk across the border. Mexicans are charged $3,000 a person; Central Americans, $5,000 a person; Brazilians, $9,000 a person; and Asians, $20,000 a person to cross the border.

And when statements are made indicating that we will no longer be enforcing the border, those statements are conveyed by the cartels to people who they believe will pay to get across. We are, therefore, seeing the increase of people at the border, including unaccompanied minors who are supposedly people we want to protect.

Last week, on the Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, just in the Sasabe section alone, after I left that area, there were 120 unaccompanied juveniles. Some already part of a criminal element, but given that they have to deal with the cartels to get across the border, it certainly is not a good influence on them.

Also while I was down there, I heard in the last year, on the Tucson sector alone--and there are seven or eight sectors along our Southern border--well over 100 people were found dehydrated to death. This is the result of the current system in which we do not secure our border.

Unfortunately, despite the verbiage which indicates we are going to be less stringent in enforcing our border, we are also going to stop building the wall. First of all, you are throwing away about 5,000 jobs right away, and supposedly we are supposed to be looking for new jobs.

But more than that, when you end these contracts, you wind up having to pay companies for parts of the wall that have been built but haven't been put up yet, pay them to undo or fill in holes which have been placed there in anticipation of a full wall, pay them to undo the damage to roads. And roads are part of the wall system that is going to be built down there. As a result, we are spending a lot of money which could be used to put in more wall and is not.

I should point out that when you put up a wall, it saves money as far as the number of Border Patrol agents you need. If you don't have a wall, it should take about two or three border agents a mile to patrol the border. With a wall, it is about one agent for every two miles. Another benefit for having a wall.

But above all, the idea of paying money to wrap up the project rather than paying money to complete the wall is a waste of money and a real problem.

Another thing I found out, with the wall, you are going to have less injuries to Border Patrol agents, which is probably one of many reasons why when I have gone down at the wall, I have yet to find a Border Patrol agent or a sheriff's deputy for the counties along the Southern border who is not in favor of the wall.

We are going to wind up losing money as we pay money to care for people crossing the wall, losing money to our society as we have more drugs coming across the Southern border. And not surprising, as marijuana becomes more legal in the United States, more of the drugs that cross the Southern border are fentanyl, are meth, are heroin, resulting in more deaths all around the country. Another reason why we should be taking our Southern border seriously.

I, therefore, strongly encourage my colleagues, as we look at future appropriation bills, to pay attention to the border. We cannot go back to the days of completely anybody can come across there, because, like I said, you are going to wind up with more people dehydrated to death in the desert. You are going to wind up with more unaccompanied minors who are going to be dealt with by the tender arms of the drug cartels, which control all the immigration and illegal immigration across the Southern border.

So, please, I ask my colleagues, do what I did. Go down to Arizona. Go down to Texas. See the situation we have. See whether anybody could possibly think going back to the old system is humane in any way. It is not humane to minors. It is not humane to the people who are guided by the cartels. It is not humane to the people who cross the border and wind up dehydrating across our Southern edge.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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