[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 46 (Thursday, March 11, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H1339-H1346]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 BORDER CRISIS IS A DANGER TO AMERICANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2021, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy) is recognized for 
60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I rise today to follow up on the remarks of 
my friend from California, who just noted the crisis we have at the 
border and the danger that that puts the American people in, and not 
just the American people, but the immigrants who seek to come here.
  I rise today, in particular, to bring the public's attention to that 
border crisis, which my friend rightfully recognized is being driven by 
that guy who runs that outfit over there.
  Now, I do not mean, in saying that, the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd 
Austin. I know who he is. I mean that other guy who runs that outfit 
over there, down Pennsylvania Avenue, and that is the President of the 
United States.
  I say this because the President cannot possibly have any idea what 
is going on because no American President entrusted with the safety and 
well-being of the United States and her citizens would purposely 
empower cartels or would purposely empower illegal organizations to 
harm American citizens for profit, to flood our streets with dangerous 
fentanyl and narcotics, to cause high-speed chases like the ones that 
have occurred in the district I represent, where Americans are in 
danger, or the murder of Americans through wide-open borders. No 
American President would purposely do that, would they?
  No American President would purposely lie to immigrants and cause 
them to get raped and abused on long, dangerous journeys across the 
desert, upon the promise of amnesty, for crass political purposes. No 
American President would possibly do that, would he or she?
  No American President could be so callous, so indifferent to the 
lives of Americans and immigrants who seek to come here, that he would 
allow his staff and the Secretary of Homeland Security to lie, 
repeatedly, to the American people that there is no crisis at our 
border.
  No American President would do that, so no American President could 
know that this is happening and take that position, could understand 
what is happening and then ignore it, could understand what is 
happening at the border and then deny it and encourage it through 
reckless policies.

  No, that guy who runs that outfit over there cannot possibly know 
what is happening at our border because no American President would do 
that.
  But I assure you, we Texans know; our neighbors in other border 
States

[[Page H1340]]

know; and the American people across the country affected by this 
crisis know. We see it every day, the brutal conditions along the 
border ravaged by the deceit and the lies of politicians governing by 
sound bite and pretending they are compassionate. We do see it every 
day.
  Who is this that I am showing here on the floor of the United States 
House of Representatives? This is the Vargas family. I have come to 
know Lori, and I have come to know other members of this family because 
Jared, depicted in this picture, was murdered by a colleague at a 
restaurant who was in this country illegally, who had been caught, let 
go, caught, let go, caught again, let go, and then murdered Jared. He 
was from San Antonio, Texas, which I represent.
  This is real. This happens every day. We, in Texas, are on the front 
lines while the people in this body fiddle, and endanger the lives of 
American citizens, to prostrate themselves to a crass political left 
that could care less about the American citizens getting killed or 
raped. And they do it for political purposes.
  The arrogance of leftist Democrats destroying our own Nation with 
trillions of dollars of spending; the reckless disregard of our energy 
independence and strength; the reckless disregard of the small 
businesses getting destroyed by shutdowns and the livelihoods destroyed 
while peddling fear and panic; the reckless disregard of our children, 
as their futures are destroyed by teachers' unions and the devastating 
masking of their innocent faces; the reckless disregard of our 
fundamental inalienable rights to worship, to speak freely, to defend 
ourselves with firearms, to pursue happiness by working to provide for 
our families; the reckless disregard for our safety while defunding 
police and attacking our rights to defend ourselves under the Second 
Amendment at the same time, done on this floor today; the reckless 
disregard for our national security, while empowering China to 
undermine our way of life; the reckless disregard for public health, as 
we rejoin the very World Health Organization that lied to us to protect 
China.
  But perhaps the most reckless, by my leftist Democratic colleagues, 
is the arrogance of using crass political selfishness to encourage 
parents to send their children to be raped, to be abused, to ride on 
train cars, and even to die along dangerous journeys, while 
simultaneously facilitating or encouraging the destruction of our 
neighbors to the south, in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras. It 
is happening in real time and in extraordinary arrogance, for purposes 
of crass political gain or perceived gain.
  Our neighbors to the south lament the mass exodus of their people 
under the lies and false compassion being sold from American Democrats.

                              {time}  1330

  This is the truth of what we are dealing with.
  Let's talk about some of the real issues going on on our border. 
Uvalde, Texas, the mayor, Don McLaughlin said, ``The 2019 border crisis 
will look like a cakewalk to what is coming with Biden's border 
crisis.''
  He said they are seeing 10 to 12 high-speed chases each week, with 
speeds up to 105 miles an hour. The local government has to take it on 
the chin because this administration refuses to secure the border. That 
is the mayor in Uvalde, Texas, just outside of the district I 
represent. My friend, Mr. Gonzales, represents that district.
  Don calls me all the time saying, ``Where's the help?''
  Where is the Federal Government, whose job it is to secure the border 
of the United States? You know where it is?
  Nowhere to be found. In fact, actually found at a border making it 
worse for the citizens of this country, making it more dangerous, 
purposely or incompetently, either one unacceptably endangering the 
lives of Americans and the immigrants who seek to come here.
  Del Rio mayor Bruno Lozano said, ``I am pleading and requesting you 
to please put a halt to any measures regarding the release of 
immigrants awaiting court dates into the city of Del Rio and 
surrounding areas.''
  Madam Speaker, the American people are pleading with their 
leadership. They are begging for the people in this body, the people's 
House, to recognize what is happening to them.
  It is real. People bury their head in the sand up here protected by 
fences with razor wire, walking through magnetometers, tweeting out how 
they somehow compare or have compassion for immigrants, ``Look at us.'' 
And in this photo is what is happening to immigrants in south Texas.
  There are mass graves where cartels kill people along the Rio Grande. 
There are people dying in the desert, seeking to come here like any 
normal person would do around the world, seeking to come to the United 
States of America, but being fed irrational hope from an administration 
for political purposes, endangering lives of immigrants and American 
citizens.
  Yuma, Arizona, mayor Douglas Nichols said, ``I am urging the Federal 
level for additional resources for United States Customs and Border, 
the need for more space at migrant holding facilities that will allow 
for adherence to CDC guidelines, more COVID testing. There is no 
capacity in our current nonprofit system in Yuma.''
  Our colleague, my friend from Texas, Mr. Cuellar, has said thousands 
of migrants have not been tested. Over 10,000 people have come in 
through the lower Rio Grande Valley. He said, ``Those folks aren't 
being tested.''
  There are folks--my friends on the other side of the aisle who 
recognize what is happening.
  My colleague, Mr. Gonzales, sent a letter to Biden, requesting a 
meeting, stating, ``It is imperative we get this situation under 
control or we are looking at another crisis on our hands.''
  Well, that crisis is here, citing the large number of unaccompanied 
children and increased hospital admissions. This is happening right 
now.
  Where is the President? Where is the Homeland Security Secretary? 
Where is anyone in this administration recognizing the crisis at our 
border, the death toll, the impact on citizens and immigrants who seek 
to come here?
  Texas State senator, Chuy Hinojosa, Democrat, said, ``I don't think, 
quite frankly, the Biden administration was aware of what is happening 
on the ground here, which you can understand because they are just 
coming in and trying to get people up to speed with what is happening. 
But I don't think they were aware there were that many coming across. 
The Border Patrol is overwhelmed. They are throwing their hands up 
because they don't know what to do.''
  That is all from my Democrat friend from Texas.
  The CBP has already encountered nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants 
since October, and the numbers are rising. For contacts in the first 5 
months of fiscal 2020, the CBP encountered 200,000. That is twice as 
many this year, twice as many.
  What changed?
  The administration's absurd, embarrassing, incompetent or, worse yet, 
purposefully malicious policies.
  Just last month, February, the CBP encountered over 100,000 aliens at 
the border. One month. That is who they encountered. That is not got-
aways. This is real.
  Come do like I have done and go spend the night on the border. Go sit 
down at the river at the Rio Grande. Talk to the immigrants, in my case 
in broken Spanish. If you are fluent, talk to them or have somebody who 
can and talk to them about why they are coming. Talk to them about what 
the cartels are doing to them.
  Have a conversation with a young man, like I did last year, about the 
pack of girls behind him, about whether they were abused on the 
journey. He said, ``Yes,'' ``Si.''
  Or just continue to bury one's head in the sand and pretend it is 
compassionate to have open borders, because that is what is happening 
today in the people's House. These are human beings, y'all.
  As of last month, the number of families encountered is the highest 
since January 2019. In January, 7,200--almost 7,300 family units were 
encountered. In February, that number skyrocketed to 19,246. That is 
not an accident. These are families.
  Encounters with what we call UACs--unaccompanied alien children--
increased 74 percent year to date. Just last month, some 6,000 migrants 
aged 16 and 17 were caught. The Department

[[Page H1341]]

of Homeland Security currently projects there will be 117,000 
unaccompanied child migrants crossing the border this year.
  The number of migrant children is on pace to exceed the all-time 
record by 45 percent, and the administration does not have enough beds. 
The Biden administration needs another 20,000 beds to shelter the 
minors.
  Now, I have a couple friends here, a couple colleagues, who I think 
are waiting to join.
  Is the gentleman from California looking to add a few remarks?
  I will yield to the gentleman from California in just one minute, and 
then my friend from Virginia after him.
  But what I would say, when we are talking about these numbers, people 
get lost in the numbers, 20,000 beds, talking about 45 percent 
increase. Let's just be very clear. For those of us who spend time on 
the border--I am going back on Monday--these are human beings. These 
are people. They are not political pawns. And that goes for American 
citizens and for the immigrants who seek to come here.
  And this is the dirty little secret. My Democratic colleagues know 
full well that what is happening at the border is going to be a catch-
and-release organization. The Department of Homeland Security is 
turning the CBP into a catch-and-release organization. So you will see 
some of these numbers going down.
  But don't kid yourself, the American people watching this. When the 
numbers go down in these facilities, it is because the Biden 
administration is purposefully catching and releasing folks, whether 
they have been tested or not, regardless of what kind of security 
threat they might pose, regardless of fully checking whether a child 
goes with a family member or not, whether they can be abused, put into 
the sex trafficking trade, because it is rote incompetence. When you 
see those numbers go down, just know what is happening.
  11,000 people were caught and released in January and February, 
immediately caught and released from the CBP rather than being put in 
facilities.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. LaMALFA. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Texas, Mr. Roy.
  Indeed, as another representative of a border state, we feel the 
effect as well of the Biden border crisis. President Trump saw the 
importance, as did many law-and-order Americans, of having a secure 
border. The Biden administration stopped construction of the security 
fence hours after being inaugurated. This has given us now the Biden 
border crisis.
  Really bad enforcement of immigration, that seems to be their 
priority. Risking health of Americans with virus superspreaders is a 
result. As my colleague mentioned, the catch-and-release program is in 
full force.
  Do we really expect people to be released in this country to come 
back to have a hearing within 2 years?
  Past pattern shows not.
  The Biden administration has just canceled an agreement with Mexico 
to keep the asylum seekers on that side of the border, which worked 
pretty well to keep the numbers down from those coming through Mexico 
from Central America. Now the incentivization of that is another big 
green light.
  Look at the numbers we are talking about here. Just in January, the 
numbers increased to 78,000 and change. In February, 100,000 so-called 
encounters at the border for people who our personnel have to deal with 
or might be sneaking through without dealing with our personnel.
  To add final insult to this policy, to Americans, to taxpayers, in 
the so-called COVID relief bill, checks can go to illegal immigrants 
who are coming here via this manner.
  I mean, whose side is this administration on? The hardworking 
Americans coming through a COVID crisis, high unemployment? Who are 
they working for?
  I don't think it is us. I don't think it is the American people.
  As a Californian, I also want to harken back to two tragedies amongst 
many. In northern California, just a few short years ago, we lost a 
beautiful young lady named Kate Steinle in San Francisco, who was 
killed by an illegal immigrant who shouldn't have been here, who should 
have been deported at least five times over.
  Jamiel Shaw from the Los Angeles area, whose father I have met. His 
dad lost his son to a killing by an illegal immigrant.
  Whose side is this administration on when they carry out this policy 
just to either show they are different from Trump or that it is a 
political gain for them in their twisted view?
  Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding.
  Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his remarks. He 
rightfully points out the impact on Miss Steinle and her family and 
American citizens in California being negatively impacted by illegal 
immigration.
  I talked before about Jared Vargas from San Antonio, the city I 
represent, who was murdered a couple years ago. His twin brother just 
graduated from college. He is going on. His family is a beautiful 
family. They have a strong faith, and they are persevering, but their 
family was turned upside down by a brutal murder. He was beaten to 
death and burned. Beaten to death and burned by a guy who came here 
illegally, was caught and let go, caught and let go, caught and let go 
again. He beat and burned to death Jared Vargas.
  These are real people. We can do hundreds of these. We can talk to 
the angel families who have lost loved ones. We can talk to the parents 
of law enforcement officers and others in Border Patrol who have lost 
loved ones along our border. We could do a whole hour, we could do a 
whole day just going through that impact and, as I pointed out before 
in the other slide, the impact on the immigrants who seek to come here.
  This is the story, all in the false name of compassion by this 
administration.
  I will be happy to yield in just 1 minute to the gentleman from 
Virginia.
  My friend from California was raising the important points of the 
impact of illegal immigration. Now we are seeing it in real time, 
particularly in Texas, among all four States along the border and 
throughout this country, empowering cartels, endangering the lives of 
the immigrants who seek to come here, endangering American citizens for 
one reason and one reason only, and that is the crass political 
interests of the American Democratic Party and this administration.

  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Virginia.
  Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I thank the esteemed congressman 
from Texas, who has been quite a champion on this issue.
  Madam Speaker, no nation in the history of the world has been more 
welcoming to immigrants than the United States. And no nation in the 
history of the world is more diverse or has provided more opportunity 
for people of all races and ethnic backgrounds than the United States.
  That is why millions of immigrants of all races and ethnicities are 
seeking to come to America. In fact, billions of the world's 7 billion 
non-U.S. population would come here, undoubtedly, if they could.
  I sincerely believe that most Americans, if not most elected 
officials, understand that the lack of an effective immigration policy 
is one of the most important threats to our country. However, President 
Biden's decision to reverse the Trump policies that successfully 
secured our border is dangerous to the future of our Nation and driven 
solely by a need to pander to the left.

                              {time}  1345

  Make no mistake, President Biden's policies created this very crisis 
today, his promise of amnesty made it worse, and his administration is 
now ignoring it.
  You would think in the absence of leadership, Congress would try to 
step in and address the Biden border surge crisis.
  Instead, we are expecting to take up two liberal amnesty bills in the 
House this upcoming week, including H.R. 6, the American Dream and 
Promise Act.
  H.R. 6 would provide amnesty to roughly three million people, which 
would be a slap in the face to everyone who ever has or currently is 
navigating our legal immigration system.
  Even worse, it would incentivize more illegal immigration at a time

[[Page H1342]]

when we have no operational control of our southern border.
  Even more bizarre, this bill allows for criminal aliens, people who 
have committed crimes in American communities, to be eligible for 
amnesty.
  The bill specifically allows for an individual who has committed up 
to two misdemeanors or one crime of moral turpitude to gain a pathway 
to legal status.
  Some may say, well, misdemeanors aren't that serious. Well, here are 
a few examples of crimes that are only misdemeanors in States such as 
California: Domestic violence, prostitution, drunk driving.
  Worst of all, this legislation provides a waiver for people who would 
technically not otherwise qualify for this amnesty. This waiver 
specifically covers: Human smuggling offenses, voter fraud offenses, 
and communicable diseases.
  I urge this Congress not to worsen this crisis, and to instead debate 
legislation that makes America safer and honors our legal immigrants.
  Instead of providing amnesty to criminals, we should debate my 
legislation, H.R. 398, the No Asylum for Criminals Act, which would 
prohibit dangerous criminals from qualifying for asylum in the U.S.
  When it comes to legal immigration, people of good faith can debate 
on what overall immigration levels are prudent for our country, how to 
best balance the needs of American citizens with the desire of 
immigrants who are simply seeking a better life for themselves and 
their family, how to cultivate patriotic assimilation, how to protect 
jobs for American workers while providing labor for our businesses, and 
the merits, or the lack thereof, of issues such as chain migration, 
birthright citizenship, diversity visas, and other unique features of 
America's immigration system.
  But there should be no debate on the rule of law. We should be united 
and bipartisan on the critical importance of enforcing our laws and 
eliminating illegal immigration.
  There is simply no honest debate regarding the fact that barriers, 
whether walls or fences, work. Just look around D.C. to see 
confirmation that our House Democratic leadership believes this.
  There should be no debate regarding the fact that illegal immigration 
is a significant threat to our national security, our economic 
security, and our health security.
  Illegal immigration further burdens our economy, our social services, 
our healthcare system, and our education system.
  Illegal immigration also enriches Mexico's organized crime and the 
cartels that control everyone and everything that comes across the 
southern border.
  The individuals illegally coming across our southern border suffer 
dangerous and sometimes deadly hardships and are often victimized by 
the Mexican cartels.
  Individuals who cannot afford to pay the smugglers are often extorted 
into carrying drugs and other illicit material into the U.S. Others are 
abused as indentured servants to the cartels if they make it across. 
Many must live the rest of their lives with existential threats to 
themselves and their families.
  Moreover, illegal immigration places our law enforcement and our 
citizens living near the border in immediate danger when drugs and 
other preventable materials are smuggled across the border with 
impunity. We are risking turning every community into a border town and 
making our Nation a sanctuary Nation.
  We must commit to completing the wall, enforcing our existing laws, 
ending catch and release, requiring mandatory E-Verify, fixing our 
biometric entry/exit systems, and taking amnesty, unlawful employment, 
and citizenship off the table.
  The future of our country is clearly at stake with how we manage or 
don't manage immigration.
  Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, in a moment I will yield to the gentlewoman 
from Georgia, and I thank the gentleman from Virginia for those remarks 
that are directly on point.
  What we are seeing right now--you used the phrase that we are 
creating a ``sanctuary Nation,'' is a sanctuary country. Well, that is 
what is happening. That is what this administration is doing. You talk 
about sanctuary cities; this administration is just going right past 
sanctuary cities, and they want to make the United States of America a 
sanctuary Nation.
  They are turning the Department of Homeland Security and the CBP into 
the welcoming center for a sanctuary Nation. And not a welcoming center 
in the sense that we would all agree we want to do as Americans, to 
make sure that those who are truly seeking refuge following our laws, 
seeking asylum, the things that our laws provide for people truly under 
persecution. No. They are using that as an excuse and cover for wide-
open borders and, essentially, people seeking economic opportunity, 
which no one I know begrudges those who seek economic opportunity. But 
we do take issue with those who seek to violate our laws to come here, 
overwhelm our border, and an administration whose job it is to enforce 
the laws of the United States to refuse to do so.
  It begs the question whether the President of the United States, as I 
said before, either has no idea what is happening at the border or 
whether it is purposeful. And if it is purposeful, is it the President 
of the United States choosing to refuse to defend the Constitution and 
the laws and to refuse to take care to see that the laws of the United 
States are faithfully executed as is required under the Constitution of 
the United States? I think it is a question this body ought to be 
asking.

  The people's House ought to be asking: Is the President of the United 
States refusing to take care to ensure that the laws of the United 
States with respect to our borders are being faithfully executed?
  I would posit that that is precisely what is happening, or the 
President of the United States has no idea what is happening at our 
border. Because, again, no American President can be so callous as to 
use raw, crass politics to allow what is happening at our border to 
happen to human beings, American citizens and immigrants alike. ``That 
guy who runs that outfit over there.''
  I yield to the gentlewoman from Georgia.
  Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I thank the good gentleman 
from Texas for yielding.
  I have to tell you, that Jared, who you spoke about, I met his aunt 
and uncle a few years ago. And he suffered a death that is too much to 
think about. And him being an American citizen, born here free and 
being murdered like he was by illegal aliens, criminals, animals, is 
just too much to bear.
  This is the people's House. This is the House of Representatives that 
I have started to call the house of hypocrites. This entire campus 
right now is surrounded by a border wall with razor wire. It is a fence 
unlike anything at our southern border. This place is surrounded by the 
military. It is completely guarded. But we don't extend the same thing 
to the American people.
  The Joe Biden administration, my Democratic colleagues here in 
Congress, Democrats in the Senate, they want the border ripped wide 
open, and that is what it is right now.
  I just watched a video that was shared this morning from southeast 
Texas where there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of people lined up to 
cross the Rio Grande, and they are being smuggled into our country by 
human traffickers.
  It is big business to come into our country illegally, and Joe Biden 
is rewarding the smugglers, the coyotes, the cartels in Mexico and 
these other countries by opening our borders up and welcoming them all 
in.
  While they are forcing our kids to stay home and paying off these 
teachers' union bosses, they have wide-open, 100 percent capacity, in-
person teaching for illegal children. What kind of country is this that 
rewards people that break into our country illegally, but yet abuses 
its citizens and taxpayers?
  There needs to be a change, and this is Joe Biden's crisis that he 
will never recover from. People are not stupid, no matter if they vote 
one party or the other. But the American people are going to be sick 
and tired of being run over and treated this way.
  Everybody wants to cry about COVID-19, the most politicized virus, a 
political tool that shut down America. Well, let me tell you something, 
all these people that I just watched on this

[[Page H1343]]

video, they are not wearing masks like we are required to do. They are 
bringing all kinds of diseases into our country, but yet, they are 
being welcomed in. Here, come to school. Here, here is a bus ride to 
another city. Come on in. Yet America is still not fully open because 
of COVID-19.
  There are so many reasons why we can call this the house of 
hypocrites that we could be here all day long, but I appreciate the 
time.
  Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the gentlewoman from Georgia 
coming down and joining us in this conversation.
  I did not realize that the gentlewoman had the pleasure of meeting 
with and getting to know the Vargas family or at least maybe the aunt 
and uncle, I think is what you said. And what I would tell you is that 
it is a truly wonderful family. They embody all that is right and good 
about the American Dream, about opportunity.
  These are American citizens, American citizens who happen to have, 
you know, Hispanic family members, which is so ironic because--you 
know, those of us who really try to take and honor the idea of judging 
people by the content of their character and not their skin color or 
race or creed, I find it ironic that my colleagues on the other side of 
the aisle seem to only view the purpose of the legislative body to view 
human beings by the color of their skin and to make all of our policies 
based on segmenting us out.
  To quote the Supreme Court Justice John Roberts in a seminal Supreme 
Court case, Divvying us up by race is a sordid business.
  And my colleagues on the other side of the aisle often use words like 
``voter suppression'' when we talk about believing we should have voter 
identification. Believing we should have rules in place about how we 
run our election systems, heaven forbid.
  And would the gentlewoman agree that too often those words like 
``voter suppression'' are code words, buzz words for the allegation 
that those of us who believe a secure border is better for immigrants 
and American citizens believe that voter ID and systems that make sure 
American citizens are the ones voting that we are labeled bigots, and 
that words like ``voter suppression'' are code words and buzz words, 
dog whistles that we are bigots and that the agenda of my colleagues on 
the other side of the aisle is often directed to label us as such. 
Would the gentlewoman agree with that?
  Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. ROY. I yield to the gentlewoman from Georgia.
  Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. I definitely agree with the good gentleman 
from Texas. You see, it is unfortunate that our colleagues on the other 
side of the aisle use race as a tool to push their agenda, where here 
in this country every single one of us are equal. God created us equal 
and thank God we have a Constitution that affirms it.
  And if we are to do anything we should look at Americans as one, 
because we are the citizens of this Nation, and all of our policies and 
laws should serve our American people, not divide it up by identity or 
politics or any other category.

  And it is shameful that we have come to this place after we have come 
so far and achieved so much. And so, yes, I do agree with you, and it 
needs to be done away with.
  Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, a brief moment, a side-step away from the 
issue of border security--and I know the gentleman is here and is 
waiting patiently--and I would just ask one more question.
  The gentlewoman was here on Monday when we let it be known our desire 
to not allow 13 bills--10 Democratic bills, 3 Republican bills--to move 
off of the House floor by voice vote, that is without a roll call vote. 
And you would have thought that we, you know, lit a match on the floor 
of the House of Representatives or had done something extraordinary to 
just break this hallowed institution from its smooth operations of 
today.
  You would think that we were, you know, up-ending our Constitution as 
we know it because, believe it or not, we demanded the yeas and nays, a 
roll call vote, on 13 bills. The gentlewoman has also often taken to 
using motions to adjourn--and I believe I have heard she has done so 
and the gentlewoman stipulates she has done so--to force another hour 
of consideration when we have a bill like the $1.9 trillion monstrosity 
that reshapes the American economy, reshapes the American healthcare 
system, funds money for people in prison, up-ends our entire fiscal 
stability, I could go on and on.
  Is the gentlewoman in agreement with me that what we are trying to do 
is to simply put our colleagues on notice that perhaps the people's 
House should debate, vote, amend, be present, not vote by proxy from 
your home districts, actually be here, not have fences with razor wire, 
actually do our job, actually represent the people that elect us to 
come here, would the gentlewoman agree with that? I yield to the 
gentlewoman.

                              {time}  1400

  Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. I absolutely agree with the good gentleman. 
This is a place where we are sent to do a job for the people of our 
district. We should be able to vote on record and not have to hide 
behind a voice vote. We should be able to call for a motion to adjourn 
to give everyone pause and thought before they vote for such crucial, 
critical, radical, transforming legislation.
  I absolutely fully agree with the good gentleman from Texas. Congress 
is a place where people should be working just as our regular American 
citizens are working 12-hour shifts, working in factories, working on 
job sites, paving roads, working in restaurants, serving us when we go 
to eat. This is absolutely a place where we should work, where we 
should be able to use tools to represent our districts and not have 
rules changed here in the people's House to stop us from being able to 
use good measures for everyone in Congress to vote, be on record, and 
do their jobs that they have been elected to do.
  Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Georgia. I know 
I have my friend who has been waiting patiently, and so I will yield to 
that gentleman.
  Madam Speaker, I would just note that the gentlewoman from Georgia 
mentioned video taken from southeast Texas this morning. I am looking 
at that on social media at the moment, a huge line of people waiting 
for smugglers to ferry them across the Rio Grande into the United 
States, video courtesy of Tripwires and Triggers, which is run by a 
fellow named Jaeson Jones, who is a good friend of mine, formerly with 
the Department of Public Safety in Texas.
  Jaeson is on the job, on the spot, much like my friend Brandon Darby 
and others who work for Breitbart Texas who are on the spot, always 
trying to look out for the interests of Texans and American citizens, 
but also the immigrants who seek to come here.
  These immigrants are being abused by cartels while my Democrat 
colleagues use them as political props. It is unconscionable that we 
are allowing that to continue in the greatest Nation in the history of 
the world, again, all for crass political purposes.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Montana (Mr. Rosendale).
  Mr. ROSENDALE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Madam Speaker, I would like to add to that. What is lost on this body 
many, many times over is the inhumane treatment that these many, many 
travelers are experiencing not only before they get to the United 
States but then after.
  This is not the land of milk and honey for everyone, folks. There are 
people who are pressed into indentured servitude once they actually 
arrive here.
  Madam Speaker, I had the privilege of going down to the Arizona-
Mexico border about a month ago with the gentleman from Texas and was 
able to see firsthand and meet with Customs agents, Border Patrol, 
local law enforcement, and the farmers and ranchers. What falls on deaf 
ears is the terrible, terrible treatment.
  Our friends from across the aisle think that they are being 
compassionate by opening up the border and declaring amnesty for 
everyone. What they don't understand is that those folks are so poorly 
treated by the cartels as they travel north.
  You can break it into three sections.
  As they travel north, these women are raped. These children are 
violently assaulted. They are forced and coerced

[[Page H1344]]

into carrying drugs across the line. And then they are forced to pay 
$5,000 to $7,000 to try to pay for that passage.
  Once they get to the border, they are then forced to carry drugs 
across the border.
  Once they get north and are actually in our country, what happens is, 
many times over, they are forced to pay 25, 30 percent of their weekly 
income back to a cartel, which then continues to fuel other illicit 
crimes.
  Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, reclaiming my time.
  Would the gentleman be surprised if I recounted to him the story of 
when I was at the border last year at Laredo, and we were having a 
conversation with Border Patrol and went into one of the facilities, 
and we were talking to one of the fellows there. While we were there, 
through conversations with one of the young men who had come across--
frankly, encouraged to do so and come in and meet with Border Patrol in 
order to get across. He then gave up the location of a stash house in 
Houston, Texas, where we then went and found, that day, 50 immigrants 
in a basement, in a stash house in Houston, Texas, being held 
essentially for ransom.
  These were human beings, the product of a broken system that my 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle hail as somehow pro-immigrant 
when it is decidedly the opposite of pro-immigrant.
  Would the gentleman agree with that?
  Mr. ROSENDALE. Madam Speaker, I would absolutely agree with that. And 
my good friend from Texas, I think with your fabulous legal mind, you 
can tell me. As we have these 180 cities across the Nation and 11 
States that have declared themselves sanctuary places that these folks 
can go to, could we say that they are complicit in these crimes when 
they are incentivizing these people to travel north and get trapped in 
these situations?
  Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, it certainly goes without saying.
  I started my remarks earlier about the knowledge and the engagement 
of this President and the President's administration, that the policies 
of this administration, the policies of Democrat cities, the policies 
of Democrat States, with sanctuary cities and sanctuary States, and 
now, effectively, a sanctuary Nation, are directly causing the movement 
and the migration of human beings to come here, being exploited by 
cartels for profit, endangering their lives, endangering American 
citizens.
  Yes, for any understanding of law, you are complicit in what is 
happening to the people in question.
  Mr. ROSENDALE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
  Then the last point that I would make--as my good friend from 
Virginia, who was here earlier, made--and that is, it impacts every 
community across our Nation.

  We all are border cities now. The State of Montana is very proud to 
host to seven sovereign nations, the reservations. What happens is they 
become target areas for wide distribution of methamphetamine and other 
illicit drugs and sex trafficking. Then, those problems begin to spill 
out into the other communities around there, so the entire State ends 
up becoming a big, big problem.
  Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, and I would say to my friend that the scourge 
of human trafficking, in all of its elements--and human trafficking in 
the sense of the sex trafficking trade, modern-day slavery right here 
in the United States, people being under the thumb of dangerous 
organizations, cartels, and illegal organizations embedded in this 
country. It all has its roots and connections, in many ways, to the 
trafficking of human beings across our border for profit.
  The power being put over these people, in which they are working in 
subpar conditions or put into the sex trade, that is happening in the 
greatest country in the history of the world, and it is all a direct 
consequence of accepting and embracing that lawlessness.
  That lawlessness starts at our border and is also tied to our lack of 
enforcement and interior enforcement, through ICE, and the other 
cutbacks by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle.
  Mr. ROSENDALE. It has. The gentleman from Texas, I think, would agree 
that we are in a sad state when the humans across this Nation have 
devolved into where they now have become collateral.
  The family, friends, and relatives of the people who have crossed the 
border illegally, their family and their friends have devolved into a 
place that they are collateral to make sure that the payments are made 
for the people who have actually crossed the border to the north.
  Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, may I inquire how much time is remaining.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Texas has 15 minutes 
remaining.
  Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, what I would like to expand upon is an 
extension of what my friend from Montana was just talking about, what 
is happening to human beings here in the United States.
  But now let's talk a little about the impact with respect to COVID 
and the pandemic that we are dealing with. The Biden administration, in 
its infinite wisdom directly causing what we are seeing at the border, 
relaxed title 42 to allow illegal alien minors to enter the country, 
leading to a massive surge of illegal immigrants at the border in 
total.
  In February, CBP encountered nearly 9,500 unaccompanied alien 
children at the southern border. That is a 28 percent increase over 
January, more than 2,000 over last year, and, incredibly, almost 30,000 
UACs have been encountered in just the first 5 months of the fiscal 
year, 30,000 children. That is nearly a thousand more UACs than the 
first 5 months of last year, but it is a 74 percent increase over 
fiscal year 2020 numbers.
  Here is the thing: It is harming these kids, but it is also 
distracting Border Patrol from their job. They are turning Border 
Patrol into an entity that has to manage people, kids in facilities, 
but they are no longer doing their job between the ports of entry.
  Do you know what that means? Fentanyl, narcotics. Why do we have a 
mass opioid crisis in this country? Now we are feeding into that as a 
literal, direct, and obvious result of the policies of this 
administration.
  It has to be, as I said as I opened, either complete incompetence or 
purposeful. Either one of those is unacceptable.
  Madam Speaker, Mexico is closing their Migrant Protection Protocol 
shelters where migrants are supposed to be tested and confirmed 
negative for COVID before being let into the United States. Reports 
have indicated at least 108 COVID-positive illegal aliens were released 
by CBP in one fell swoop. According to reports, at least 185 immigrants 
released in the past month in Brownsville tested positive.
  Madam Speaker, 25 Border Patrol agents have died of COVID, but the 
administration is taking no major steps to prioritize those frontline 
workers for the vaccine in the last 2 months. Most of them are having 
to go into the communities to go get the vaccine, even though they are 
on the front lines, dealing with COVID-positive individuals coming 
across our border.
  Madam Speaker, it is for this reason that my colleague from New 
Mexico, Yvette Herrell, introduced H.R. 471, the Protecting Americans 
from Unnecessary Spread upon Entry from COVID Act of 2021, or the PAUSE 
Act.
  Title 42 must remain in effect under her act until all State and 
Federal lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, curfews, and other COVID 
mandates end; all public and Federal public health emergencies for 
COVID-19 end; and the CDC's COVID-19 travel health risk level for 
Canada and Mexico is reduced to level 1.

  Madam Speaker, that is a good bill. We should continue to enforce 
title 42. There are 44 cosponsors to this bill, only Republicans.
  Yesterday, I filed H. Res. 216, which is a rule to discharge this 
bill. When it ripens, which is another 8 or so legislative days, we are 
going to be pushing to discharge that bill from committee and vote on 
it on the floor of the House of Representatives.
  I hope my Democrat colleagues will agree that we should enforce title 
42 to protect American citizens and make sure that we don't have an 
epidemic at our southern border.
  Madam Speaker, this is what we are facing, and it is a direct 
consequence of

[[Page H1345]]

an administration peddling amnesty and the false hope to immigrants to 
come here through dangerous channels, being abused by cartels in the 
process.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert), my 
friend.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from Texas for 
yielding.
  I am so thrilled you are hammering this point. These are people's 
lives, as you were saying earlier. We just were having a hearing in a 
crime subcommittee, and an article was introduced that said there are 
more drugs that come in through public ports than illegally across our 
border.
  Well, my friend has been involved in enforcing the law as a State 
prosecutor. There is no one who can tell you how much in the way of 
drugs were missing, but these kids are now--there is incentive from the 
Biden administration to keep reusing these kids.
  Border patrolmen are saying--my friend may have touched on this 
earlier--that, actually, they are recognizing some of the kids who come 
in and help people to stay there, and then they will go back across the 
border and come with another group.

                              {time}  1415

  It is bad enough that this administration is luring people up, 
especially children, to their detriment, but it is even worse when they 
become just products to be used and thrown away. I had been standing 
there all hours of the night seeing the long line of people being 
processed and the border patrolmen were asking their questions.
  At the opposite end where I would go, there are people passing kids 
around and asking: Who is going to be the mother? Who is going to be 
the father? Do you want this kid?
  I will take the kid.
  Madam Speaker, you can see them.
  Who is going to take the kid?
  Clearly, the child didn't belong to any of the people there. Many 
multiple times I have seen them looking at the address that the drug 
cartel gave them, and they are supposed to turn that over to Border 
Patrol, and then ICE or HHS would ship them to where the drug cartels 
want them to go, and they are switching addresses: I would rather go to 
that one.
  Then they tell the Border Patrol: This is where I have a relative. 
This is where I want to go.
  That is why the drug cartels call the Border Patrol and us here in 
the U.S. their logistics. They get them illegally across the border, 
and then taxpayers ship them to wherever the cartels want them.
  Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from Texas for his remarks.
  Madam Speaker, I think the gentleman who has spent time at the 
border, as I have, would appreciate the story that I can recount. When 
I was last there, there was a conversation involving a young man who 
had come across, and he was being questioned, as the gentleman just 
described. He was questioned about where he came from and all the 
things to go through, his age and so forth, and then at one point the 
young man said he needed to use the bathroom.
  The Border Patrol agent said: Oh, sure, it is no problem. Let me get 
up and show you where it is.
  He said: Oh, I know.
  He knew. He knew where the bathroom was. This wasn't his first rodeo. 
This is happening every day at our border, literally every day.
  But the media just goes about its business, ignoring the crisis now 
that it is not politically expedient to do so. My colleagues on the 
other side of the aisle spent the last 3 years saying that it is all a 
manufactured crisis and that there is no crisis at the border. Then 
with Trump, there was a crisis suddenly. There wasn't a crisis, and 
then there was a crisis.
  Then there were people drinking out of toilets--a lie. Then it was 
kids in cages--a lie. Fences and barriers were put up in facilities to 
protect these kids and separate them from the dangerous elements to 
make sure someone claiming that they are this kid's uncle is actually 
the kid's uncle.
  Those chain-link barriers that were put up in these facilities were 
put up by whom?
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert).
  Mr. GOHMERT. That would be the Obama administration, Madam Speaker, 
although now we have some being put up by the Biden administration.
  Mr. ROY. That is exactly correct.
  Yet for 4 years under the Trump administration, my colleagues on the 
other side of the aisle went around ranting about the treatment of 
migrants, whom we are dealing with because of very broken policies, 
trying to protect the kids, keep them from being abused, put them in 
air-conditioned facilities with airflow, the chain-link barriers so you 
can see them--oh, no. Kids in cages. Oh, drinking out of a toilet. It 
was a lie. It was a straight-up lie.
  I sent my chief of staff down the next day. He went to where they 
were talking about it, and it was one of those devices that is a toilet 
with a water fountain off the back of it, which we have in all of our 
facilities and in a lot of our prison facilities and ICE facilities in 
this country.
  By the way, in every bathroom in America, the water supply behind the 
drywall is supplying the water to your faucet and the water to your 
toilet, Madam Speaker. Oh, but this is kids drinking out of toilets.
  ``Never let a crisis go to waste,'' say my colleagues on the other 
side of the aisle. We are seeing that right now with $1.9 trillion. We 
are seeing that right now. And we are seeing the result of that right 
now with a Biden border crisis directly of the making of this 
administration.
  It is the direct consequence of undoing and refusing to enforce their 
laws; undoing the migrant protection protocol working with Mexico; 
refusing to fully enforce title 42; refusing to go through what you are 
supposed to do on asylum determinations; refusing to limit catch and 
release and instead turning the Department of Homeland Security into a 
catch-and-release organization, trumpeting an amnesty bill; and then 
attracting families to come through dangerous channels, risking their 
own children and lives at the hands of cartels, all to profit and 
enrich cartels; and then have the audacity to say that is compassion 
and the audacity to say that that is pro-immigrant.
  Meanwhile, the people I represent, the Texans we represent, are 
having to foot the bill. We are having to deal with it. We are having 
to deal with schools. We are having to deal with high-speed chases. We 
are having to deal with crime, drug trafficking, and the reach of 
cartels in south Texas. And no one in this people's House gives a whit 
because of political expediency.
  Madam Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Texas has 2 minutes 
remaining.
  Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I ask my friend from Texas if he has anything 
else he would like to add.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Madam Speaker, I would just like to reinforce that when 
these people get into the United States, their nightmare is not over. 
They get shipped to towns all over America. Those who wear colored arm 
bands now tell the drug cartel what their situation is. When they get 
where they are going, they are still under the thumb of the drug 
cartels to either sell drugs or sex trafficking. If they don't pay up 
what they owe, then a family member gets killed or some part gets cut 
off.

  We know how bad the drug cartels are. So it doesn't just end there 
when they get to America. That nightmare will continue, and this 
administration is all part of it.
  Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I will close my last minute to just say that 
it is currently easier for the cartels to exploit our Southern border 
and to allow gang members and dangerous narcotics to come into this 
country than it is for the American people to get access to the 
people's House. Fences with razor wire surround this building. We are 
apparently so afraid of what might happen to us in this body that we 
need fences and razor wire, but, meanwhile, our Southern border is wide 
open for exploitation.
  I am only just reminded of when I started that the guy who runs that 
outfit over there in the White House, that the guy either is blatantly 
ignoring his duty to defend the border of the United States purposely 
or he has no idea what is going on, because no American President--no 
American President--

[[Page H1346]]

should or would allow this kind of activity to be happening at our 
Southern border, endangering American citizens and endangering 
immigrants in the name of the United States.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
engaging in personalities toward the President.

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