[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 86 (Tuesday, May 18, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H2428]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          BIDEN BORDER CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Nehls) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. NEHLS. Mr. Speaker, for months now, our country has witnessed the 
never-ending horrific images and stories coming from our southern 
border. We have seen young children thrown over a 14-foot fence like a 
rag doll. We have seen children wandering alone, abandoned in south 
Texas. We have seen thousands of children packed like sardines into 
holding facilities meant for 250. And we have seen countless horrific 
tales of young women sexually assaulted by coyotes on their trek up 
here.
  When I traveled to the southern border in March and again in May, I 
saw the Biden border crisis firsthand. I spoke to Border Patrol agents 
who said they are beyond spread thin trying to juggle securing the 
border with an inadequate number of agents, while simultaneously 
babysitting the unprecedented number of migrant children who continue 
to flood across our southern border daily. While they are busy 
babysitting, violent criminal aliens are slipping through undetected.
  These stories are indisputable. They are entirely based in fact and 
truth. But rather than recognize and address the reality of the 
situation, Democrats and the Biden administration are downplaying, 
distracting, and denying. They are downplaying the severity of this 
crisis by refusing to call it a crisis; saying, instead, it is a 
challenge. They are denying the crisis by refusing to visit the 
southern border in person.
  It has been 55 days since President Biden tapped Kamala Harris to be 
the lead on the border, and she still has not visited. And they are 
distracting from this crisis by talking about anything but the border.
  Love him or hate him, under President Trump, we finally had a leader 
willing to step up and fix the mess at our southern border, a mess our 
country has failed to deal with for decades, under both Republican and 
Democrat leadership. President Trump was the only President who truly 
took the necessary steps to not only stop the flow of illegal aliens 
across our borders, but to deter caravans from ever forming.
  He instituted commonsense policies, like the remain in Mexico policy, 
ending catch and release, and building a big, beautiful wall with 
beautiful gates because, as we all know, this isn't about legal 
immigration; it is about illegal immigration.

                              {time}  1030

  We are a nation of laws and law and order, or at least we used to be. 
Ever since President Biden assumed control of the White House, there 
has been an outright refusal from his administration to put the 
American people first and address the growing crisis at our southern 
border. Their inaction will cost American lives, will cost billions of 
American taxpayer dollars, and will once again put the responsibility 
of the Federal Government on individual States.
  And I know. I saw it firsthand as a county sheriff for 8 years in 
Texas. I had to look victims of crime in the eyes after their loved one 
was killed or their homes were burglarized and tell these individuals: 
I am sorry for what happened to you, but we caught the guy. And I am 
sad to tell you that he has been deported four, five, six times.
  I had to tell this specifically to dozens of residents in my home 
county whose homes were burglarized by a burglary ring of illegal 
aliens from, yes, Honduras and Colombia, many of whom had been deported 
several times.
  In January 2020, I had to tell the son of an elderly Texas woman who 
was killed in a hit-and-run that the illegal alien who ran his mother 
over had been deported six times prior. How on Earth does anyone ever 
get deported more than one time from our country? It happens because 
the Federal Government is failing to secure the southern border.
  It is mind-boggling to me that the Democrat Party has accepted that 
American lives will be lost and billions of taxpayer dollars wasted so 
illegal aliens can flood into our country simply because their home 
country is corrupt or crippled. Economic hardship or struggle in your 
home country is not justification for breaking the law and skipping the 
line of millions of people patiently waiting to legally immigrate here.
  We are not the world's charity. We are not a nation of open borders. 
We are a nation of laws, and it is past time the current administration 
wakes the hell up and remembers that fact. But I won't hold my breath, 
and neither should the American people. Democrats have demonstrated 
right to our faces that they don't care about putting the American 
people first.
  Members of Congress and the American people need to speak up and 
speak out about the Biden border crisis and hold this administration's 
feet to the fire until they reverse course.

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