[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 165 (Thursday, September 23, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H5101-H5102]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            WAKE UP, AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Wisconsin (Mr. Grothman) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to address the most 
immediate, but still underpublicized, crisis facing America today.
  No country can afford unlimited immigration.
  In 2018, 830,000 people were sworn in as new citizens, as they spent 
years in America proving they were the moral citizens John Adams said 
were necessary to keep our Republic.
  Now record numbers of unvetted immigrants, including, we believe, 
over 10,000 Haitians at the border, are flooding in our country. We 
have been processing over 200,000 immigrants at the border each of the 
last 2 months, many of which are turned around; but in July over 
100,000 immigrants were let in. That is in comparison to 8,000 
immigrants being let in a year earlier. It appears in August we will be 
at another 90,000 people coming in.
  Because of the flood of refugees, the Border Patrol must do paperwork 
so that 224 miles of the Texan border is largely unguarded. People I 
talk to in Border Patrol believe that the official number of 31,000 
got-aways is probably understated.

                              {time}  1100

  It is hard not to conclude that this is happening by design. 
Recently, the Biden administration extended temporary protective 
status, causing drug cartels to inform people all around the world that 
the border is open.
  I should point out, by the way, when people talk about the Haitians, 
these are not people who are coming here from Haiti. These are Spanish-
speaking people who already were in places like Chile, for example. 
They are not coming here because they have nowhere

[[Page H5102]]

else to go; they have somewhere else to go. They are coming here 
because they received a message from the Biden administration that we 
are not guarding our borders.
  It is apparent they feel the over 800,000 legally vetted immigrants 
are not enough. It is kind of amazing.
  I don't know where the press is in this. The press ought to wake up. 
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, other than her 1-day photo op, have 
largely ignored the border. Wouldn't you think they would be getting 
nothing but questions as far as what is going on, on the border? Why 
aren't you down there? Why aren't you seeing what is going on? This 
will destroy America. America must wake up.
  Two weeks ago in the Education and Labor Committee, apparently in an 
effort to further increase illegal immigration, all 28 Democrats voted 
specifically to give Pell grants, which is free college, to illegal 
immigrants--it is unbelievable--while the middle-class families in 
America are forced to go tens of thousands of dollars in debt to get 
their college.
  We are specifically saying that if you come here illegally, we will 
give you free college--unbelievable--in addition to promises of free 
healthcare. It is no wonder that so many people are flooding across our 
border.
  By the way, I want to give our President something to think of. When 
we appear so weak at the border, I think it tells other countries 
around the world that we are weak, as well. I don't know what President 
wants to be known as the weak President, but you don't think that other 
countries like Iran, groups like the Taliban, Russia, are observing 
this and taking the measure of what Joe Biden is as he lets people 
flood across the border?
  By the way, we are also finally at a point at which 90,000 Americans 
are dying every year of illegal drug overdoses. My local law 
enforcement, who have to deal with the families of the people who die 
largely because of fentanyl coming across the southern border, wonder 
why more isn't being done down there. But again, it seems to be, well, 
middle-class Americans dying of drug overdoses, that is not the 
priority. So we continue to allow floods coming across the border.
  It has been well-publicized that illegal immigrants are coming into 
America with COVID and other diseases, further causing me to wonder 
about the sincerity of some of the things that President Biden has 
said.
  I do wonder whether or not the vaccine mandates at the very time that 
tens of thousands of people are flooding across the border every month, 
and I do have to wonder about this bizarre bill on Friday, which is 
certainly going to get headlines as the majority of the House of 
Representatives votes to legalize abortion until birth, is it an effort 
to cause the press and even our supposedly conservative news outlets to 
avert their eyes from the border, as they have to focus on vaccine 
mandates and 8\1/2\-month abortions?
  In any event, I am calling on America to wake up. I realize there is 
not an election now, but you better make your voice heard, or we are 
going to lose the border.

                          ____________________