Laken Riley Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BIGGS. Mr. Speaker, our hearts do go out to the family of Laken Riley.

Now, we also must acknowledge that we can no longer take the feigned, empty words of sympathy from those across the aisle who refuse to do something meaningful to stop the onslaught that is happening in America today.

Let's think about this. You need to acknowledge you haven't done anything. You sent to us a foreign aid bill that you have claimed is a border security bill. It is no such thing.

However, let's face this fact, as well. Let's face the fact that the law requires detention already. The detention provisions of title 8 are civil in nature and not criminal in nature, and that is why there is already authority and mandates to hold people in custody when they haven't been convicted of various acts, such as drug distribution, prostitution, and other vices. This bill simply adds another criminal offense to a civil construct.

Let's admit that you don't want to stop that. Let's admit that you don't really want to secure the border. If you wanted to secure the border and if this administration wanted to secure the border, there is authority under title 8 right now to enact border closure procedures.

This administration has allowed people to come in running rampant. This administration should apologize to the family of the 11-year-old girl who was raped last week by a Guatemalan illegal alien who should never have been released from custody.

This happens over and over again. It is time now to stand up and say you support this bill, and you are going to begin to take action to bring the border under control.

If you want to talk about parole, we can go into a lengthy discussion about parole, but I am not going into a lengthy discussion.

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