[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 77 (Thursday, May 9, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H3667-H3668]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SOUTHERN BORDER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2019, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. 
Grothman) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to talk about the crisis at 
our southern border.

[[Page H3668]]

  Obviously, we have a big problem on the southern border. If you have 
been paying attention to what is on TV, at the beginning of the year, 
about 50,000 people were arriving here every month. We are now, we 
believe, at 100,000 people illegally entering this country.
  One of the reasons this is happening, it is not surprising that 
people from other countries think the United States does not enforce 
their immigration laws. Many local governments are sanctuary cities, 
sanctuary counties, or even sanctuary States, sending the clear message 
to people in other parts of the world: the United States does not 
enforce their immigration laws.
  Sadly, even in my home State of Wisconsin, the Governor of Wisconsin 
pulled the Wisconsin Air National Guard off the border, sending the 
message that a Governor of a State does not apparently believe we 
should be spending money enforcing our immigration laws.
  The chief executives of the biggest city in the country and the 
biggest State in the country have both made it clear that they will 
provide, or want to provide, free medical care to people who come here.
  By the way, I should point out that, right now, at a time when so 
many Americans have huge deductibles, they are almost better off being 
here illegally and getting the free medical care than our citizens are.
  In any event, it is not surprising that we are flooded with people 
who want to come here.
  Another evidence of that is this body's refusal to appropriate enough 
money to build the wall. Now, in the last week--at least, it has been 
put out there--we have the majority party's suggestion or guidance for 
where we are going to spend money in the next budget.
  Now, Madam Speaker, given the crisis at the border, you would think 
the biggest increase in the next budget compared to the 2020 budget 
would be at Homeland Security--but, no.
  So the people back home understand, when we pass our annual 
appropriations, when we fund the budget, we break it into 12 different 
subcommittees, subcommittees like Agriculture, Rural Development, Food 
and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies; subcommittees like 
State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs; subcommittees like 
Defense and the subcommittee in charge of protecting our southern 
border, Homeland Security.
  Of the 12 groups that this body is going to vote on, which 
classification is getting the smallest increase in this budget? 
Homeland Security. One more time, the Congress itself is sending the 
message that we do not take our immigration laws seriously.
  It is time for us to send the message to people abroad that they 
should be taking our immigration laws seriously. After all, given the 
complete irresponsibility from so many politicians up here, it doesn't 
surprise me people think we don't take our immigration laws seriously.
  What can we do?
  Well, recently FAIR came out with a report in which they guessed that 
maybe over half the people who are in this country illegally are 
getting some sort of public benefit. When I went down to the border in 
Arizona awhile back and talked to Customs people who went through 
people's wallets and people's purses, they found evidence of people 
receiving public benefits who were not citizens here.
  I am glad our HUD Secretary is beginning to look into the, I believe, 
large number of people here illegally taking advantage of low-income 
housing.
  I want to point out, there is nothing wrong with legal immigrants 
coming here. Neither myself nor Donald Trump, who ran on this issue, 
want to decrease the 700,000 people who are sworn in every year as 
legal immigrants, and we do not want to decrease the 4 million people 
who are here on legal work visas. As a matter of fact, we said, if need 
be, we would even increase that.
  But to have so many people come here illegally is, no question, a 
huge problem. I would suggest to President Trump, because you can't 
wait for Congress to do anything around here, that he send a message 
that, when Secretary Carson finds people in low-income housing who are 
here illegally, they should be deported.
  I certainly have anecdotal evidence from back home that people who 
are here illegally are benefiting from SNAP benefits; and people who 
are, again, here illegally taking--not deporting everybody, but if they 
are taking advantage of our public benefits, again, they should return 
home and try to make a living in their home country or get benefits 
available in their home country.
  The next thing I would like to see happen, I know it is something 
President Trump ran on--I think it is time he rings the bell--is ending 
birthright citizenship. Birthright citizenship is something that can 
cause somebody to become legal here whose parents are illegal.
  We should not reward illegal behavior by having people come here 
illegally and have a child in the country; not to mention, it is not 
right to encourage pregnant people to just fly here and have a baby in 
this country and wind up having their family stay here legally by that 
way as well.
  One thing that intrigues me is that apparently Canada is looking to 
get rid of their birthright citizenship law, one of the few other 
Western countries that has it. It would be very embarrassing if Justin 
Trudeau's Canada gets rid of the antiquated birthright citizenship law 
ahead of Donald Trump's United States.
  In any event, I strongly encourage President Trump to counteract the 
message being sent by so many other elected officials and make it clear 
that our immigration laws are to be taken seriously.
  Please, Mr. Trump, send the message. Congress is paralyzed. Stand up 
not only to the people overtly discouraging and ignoring our 
immigration laws, but stand up to the Chamber of Commerce lobby and say 
that, in the future, we want our immigrants to be picked, merit-based 
immigrants, not whoever decides to break the law.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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