[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 123 (Tuesday, July 18, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H3646]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               LOCAL IMPACT OF THE NATIONAL BORDER CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Rose) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, about 20 miles outside my district, in 
Franklin, Tennessee, a 63-year-old is facing some of the worst charges 
on the books, including assault and rape. It breaks my heart to say 
these crimes involved children as young as 9 years old. Investigators 
have identified several victims, but they are asking more to come 
forward as some of these crimes go back more than a decade. Police say 
the accused predator targeted playgrounds and lured young boys under 
the guise that he was a soccer coach recruiting for his team.
  Days after this news broke, families learned the man accused of 
violating their community, their children, had lived there for 20 years 
but had no business being there. The accused man is an illegal 
immigrant.
  I signed a letter, joined by Members of the Tennessee delegation, led 
by Senator Marsha Blackburn, asking the Department of Homeland Security 
Secretary Mayorkas several questions, including why this man was able 
to go under the radar for so long.
  This is a very grim example of the very real consequences open border 
policies are having on State after State, county after county, 
community after community.
  Nearly 20,000 pounds of fentanyl have been seized at the border since 
this fiscal year started last October. That is already more than last 
fiscal year's total, and we still have more than 2 months left in this 
one. Furthermore, since October 1, Customs and Border Protection 
officials have caught more than 125 people trying to cross the southern 
border who are on the terrorist watch list.
  No one in this body should glaze over a number like that. Let me 
repeat: 125 possible terrorists have tried to enter our country since 
last October. That is just the number we know about. That is more than 
fiscal years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 combined. How many, we 
might ask, have managed to cross that we don't know about?
  We know, for example, that 1.5 million illegal immigrants have 
successfully evaded law enforcement since this administration took over 
the border. How many of that 1.5 million were, in fact, terrorists? How 
many were smuggling drugs that will kill our young people? How many are 
sexual offenders who will abuse our children?
  Yet, in May, the Biden administration announced it would be releasing 
a flood of immigrants into the United States with no way of keeping 
track of them. Instead of getting a grip on this humanitarian and 
national security crisis, this President and his administration have 
been busy fighting title 42 and the Trump-era remain in Mexico policy. 
To be fair, the President did make his first-ever trip to the border, 
in his 50-year political career, in January.
  As we continue to see records being broken, crime soaring, fentanyl 
popping up in all corners of our country and taking the lives of an 
entire generation of young people, overdose deaths rising, Madam 
Speaker, I rise today to once again implore President Biden and 
Secretary Mayorkas to do their constitutional duty and secure our 
southern border.

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