Wake Up, America

Floor Speech

Date: Sept. 23, 2021
Location: Washington, DC
Keyword Search: Covid

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to address the most immediate, but still underpublicized, crisis facing America today.

No country can afford unlimited immigration.

In 2018, 830,000 people were sworn in as new citizens, as they spent years in America proving they were the moral citizens John Adams said were necessary to keep our Republic.

Now record numbers of unvetted immigrants, including, we believe, over 10,000 Haitians at the border, are flooding in our country. We have been processing over 200,000 immigrants at the border each of the last 2 months, many of which are turned around; but in July over 100,000 immigrants were let in. That is in comparison to 8,000 immigrants being let in a year earlier. It appears in August we will be at another 90,000 people coming in.

Because of the flood of refugees, the Border Patrol must do paperwork so that 224 miles of the Texan border is largely unguarded. People I talk to in Border Patrol believe that the official number of 31,000 got-aways is probably understated.

It is hard not to conclude that this is happening by design. Recently, the Biden administration extended temporary protective status, causing drug cartels to inform people all around the world that the border is open.

I should point out, by the way, when people talk about the Haitians, these are not people who are coming here from Haiti. These are Spanish- speaking people who already were in places like Chile, for example. They are not coming here because they have nowhere else to go; they have somewhere else to go. They are coming here because they received a message from the Biden administration that we are not guarding our borders.

It is apparent they feel the over 800,000 legally vetted immigrants are not enough. It is kind of amazing.

I don't know where the press is in this. The press ought to wake up. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, other than her 1-day photo op, have largely ignored the border. Wouldn't you think they would be getting nothing but questions as far as what is going on, on the border? Why aren't you down there? Why aren't you seeing what is going on? This will destroy America. America must wake up.

Two weeks ago in the Education and Labor Committee, apparently in an effort to further increase illegal immigration, all 28 Democrats voted specifically to give Pell grants, which is free college, to illegal immigrants--it is unbelievable--while the middle-class families in America are forced to go tens of thousands of dollars in debt to get their college.

We are specifically saying that if you come here illegally, we will give you free college--unbelievable--in addition to promises of free healthcare. It is no wonder that so many people are flooding across our border.

By the way, I want to give our President something to think of. When we appear so weak at the border, I think it tells other countries around the world that we are weak, as well. I don't know what President wants to be known as the weak President, but you don't think that other countries like Iran, groups like the Taliban, Russia, are observing this and taking the measure of what Joe Biden is as he lets people flood across the border?

By the way, we are also finally at a point at which 90,000 Americans are dying every year of illegal drug overdoses. My local law enforcement, who have to deal with the families of the people who die largely because of fentanyl coming across the southern border, wonder why more isn't being done down there. But again, it seems to be, well, middle-class Americans dying of drug overdoses, that is not the priority. So we continue to allow floods coming across the border.

It has been well-publicized that illegal immigrants are coming into America with COVID and other diseases, further causing me to wonder about the sincerity of some of the things that President Biden has said.

I do wonder whether or not the vaccine mandates at the very time that tens of thousands of people are flooding across the border every month, and I do have to wonder about this bizarre bill on Friday, which is certainly going to get headlines as the majority of the House of Representatives votes to legalize abortion until birth, is it an effort to cause the press and even our supposedly conservative news outlets to avert their eyes from the border, as they have to focus on vaccine mandates and 8\1/2\-month abortions?

In any event, I am calling on America to wake up. I realize there is not an election now, but you better make your voice heard, or we are going to lose the border.

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