Police Our Border Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. STANSBURY. Mr. Chair, as it is National Police Week, I want to begin by thanking all of our law enforcement for their service and their sacrifice on behalf of our communities.

As we do so, we honor and remember those who have passed in the line of duty, including so many in New Mexico, including New Mexico State Patrolman Justin Hare and Las Cruces Police Department Patrol Officer Jonah Hernandez who died in the line of duty just this year.

I stand to oppose this bill, but I also stand deeply proud to serve New Mexico's First Congressional District, which includes the Albuquerque metro area, the seven counties, two Tribal nations, and dozens of State, county, Tribal, local law enforcement and emergency service agencies, and Federal law enforcement.

From Sandoval, Bernalillo, and Valencia Counties in the north, and Torrance, Lincoln, Chaves, Guadalupe, and De Baca in the south and east, our State, county, and local law enforcement agencies care for our communities, and keep them safe every day.

Likewise, our Federal law enforcement are working overtime in New Mexico to crack down on cartels to keep drug traffickers and dangerous drugs off our streets.

We thank them for their service and their sacrifice.

We know that public safety and the fentanyl crisis are ravishing our communities, and they are on the front lines.

That is why I have worked since day one in office to help secure millions in funding for our law enforcement for tools, technology, and equipment to support their work. I have fought for funding for recruitment and retention. This includes millions in State funding I helped secure during my time in the legislature. It also includes millions I helped secure in the Congress for State police to detect and tackle fentanyl; $18 million for law enforcement equipment and vehicles, new emergency fire stations for Moriarty, Sandia Pueblo, and Peralta; and more than $17 million for behavioral and mental health services.

Nevertheless, we know that fighting the fentanyl crisis and fighting the public safety and behavioral health crisis will take more than just stopping the flow of drugs and other materials into our communities.

It requires that we also face the realities of addiction and the people who are hurting in our communities.

It requires that we listen to and support the people who are facing the realities and the relentless challenges of the opioid crisis, who are struggling with addiction and the daily tragedies that overwhelm our first responders and emergency rooms, and the thousands who have died in New Mexico alone from this problem.

That is why I have also been working to help secure millions for behavioral health to expand clinics and housing opportunities in Albuquerque, veterans' transitional housing, the First Nation's Clinic, healthcare for the homeless, and other vital programs.

Moreover, it is why I am also sponsoring legislation to stop pill presses from being used to dump dangerous drugs in our communities and to get emergency overdose medicine into public venues.

These are the realities of how we deal with the fentanyl crisis. This is what our law enforcement are asking us to do. New Mexico is a border State. New Mexico is on the front line of the fentanyl crisis.

We have to do much more. It takes resources to fight these challenges. We have to invest in technology, tools, and staffing to stop the flow of drugs into this country. It means we have to fund and support our State, local, and Tribal law enforcement so that they can actually protect our communities.

In addition, it means that we have to take seriously and make a sustained investment in our broken healthcare and behavioral health system.

Most importantly, above all else, it means stop playing politics with the lives of our people because we already know the solutions to these problems. We don't need another messaging bill here on the House floor. We need solutions.

While you are sitting here lecturing us on your messaging bill, the Speaker of the House and Members of the House majority are standing in front of a Federal courthouse in New York City in matching outfits defending a sex offender in his hush money trial.

It is a brave statement to stand on the House floor today while that is going on and lecture us about solutions for our communities when one-half of their caucus isn't even present here in the Chamber.

Now, we already tried to pass a bipartisan solution. In fact, the Senate tried for months. In fact, it was led by a Senate GOP Member, and it was single-handedly blocked by Donald Trump because he told Members of this Chamber and others that he thought it would be bad for his campaign.

Is this the party of law and order?

Is this what the American people are asking us to do?

Our families and our communities are not a political joke. They are not a political bargaining chip. This is about real people, people like one of my closest friends who died from a fentanyl overdose with two young children at home and the thousands of others who are suffering with addiction and suffering from the challenges that our communities are facing.

Stop wasting our time. Stop offering false and empty words, and please join us for real solutions to help our communities.

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