[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 2 (Friday, January 4, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H225-H226]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      VOTE AGAINST BORDER SECURITY

  (Mr. BARR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, yesterday's vote against commonsense border 
security is a sad commentary on the misguided priorities of the new 
majority in Congress.

[[Page H226]]

  Instead of working in good faith to achieve a bipartisan compromise 
to end the partial government shutdown and address the very real crisis 
at our southern border, the new Democrat House leadership signaled that 
all they really want to do is to continue their fight with this 
President.
  By totally dismissing what career professionals at the Department of 
Homeland Security have said, that they actually need to impede the flow 
of criminals, gangs, human traffickers, and drug dealers into our 
country, the new leadership has signaled to the country that the new 
majority has been co-opted by the most extreme and hyperpartisan voices 
of the far left who are so far outside the mainstream and are so 
blinded by their animosity toward this President that they have become 
willing to place the interests of illegal immigrants ahead of the 
interests of the American people.
  They would rather turn a blind eye to lawlessness. They would rather 
compromise public safety and allow criminal gangs and drugs to flood 
across our borders than even negotiate with this President.
  In their meeting with the White House earlier this week, the 
Democrats refused to even listen to a briefing of the Secretary of the 
Department of Homeland Security about the threats we face from an 
unsecured border.
  This is a matter of national security. It is time for Congress to put 
the safety of the American people over open borders and political 
games.

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