The Southern Border is Not Secure

Floor Speech

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Mr. KUSTOFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak in support of H.R. 2, which is the Secure the Border Act.

Everyone knows that the southern border is not secure. At the start of his Presidency, Joe Biden halted construction of the border wall, essentially prevented Immigration and Customs Enforcement from doing its job to keep our country safe.

And took steps to end the Migrant Protection Protocols as well as other enforcement policies.

President Biden's open border policies have led to the humanitarian and national security crisis at our southern border today. Since Joe Biden took office, there have been over 5 million illegal border crossings at the southern border. Customs and Border Protection officers have seized over 14,000 pounds of deadly fentanyl that have come across our southern border. For perspective, that is enough fentanyl to kill every single American.

Furthermore, in just the first 6 months of this fiscal year, 2023, the names of 80 people who appear on the terrorist watch list were stopped trying to cross the southern border.

It is about to get much worse, because tomorrow, title 42, one of our most powerful tools to quickly expel illegal immigrants, will expire. Again, that happens tomorrow.

Title 42 is a public health order that allows migrants, who would otherwise be held in processing facilities, to be quickly expelled due to a risk of COVID-19 transmission.

The end of title 42 is expected to incentivize a worsening influx of illegal migrants. Border Patrol officials at our border are already seeing an unprecedented surge at our southern border with over 26,000 migrant apprehensions in just 72 hours.

For more than 2 years, President Biden and his administration have ignored the crisis. I can tell you that House Republicans have listened to the concerns of Americans and are working on solutions to the crisis. In our Commitment to America, we promised to create a Nation that is safe.

We are going to vote soon on the Secure the Border Act, to make sure that our southern border is, in fact, secure and to combat illegal immigration.

Just a few things that our Secure the Border Act will do:

Number 1, it will force the administration to restart construction of the border wall.

It will deploy technology to the southern and northern border. It will increase the number of Border Patrol agents, and it will increase their pay. It will require transparency regarding illegal crossings from the Department of Homeland Security. It will strengthen our current law to protect unaccompanied children from human trafficking. It will end catch and release. It will end the abuse of executive immigration authority. It will strengthen and streamline the asylum process.

This bill, the Secure the Border Act, fulfills our promise to the American people to offer solutions to a crisis that affects not just cities and States along the border but every city and every State in this Nation.

Madam Speaker, I strongly urge my colleagues to support this important piece of legislation.

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