[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 36 (Wednesday, February 28, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H700-H701]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   PRESIDENT BIDEN'S BORDER BRUTALITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Rose) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROSE. Mr. Speaker, last week our country lost yet another 
innocent soul to President Biden's administration's inexcusable and 
shameful open-border policy when 22-year-old Laken Hope Riley was 
brutally murdered by a Venezuelan citizen who illegally entered our 
country in September 2022.
  Laken Riley was a nursing student at Augusta University's Athens 
campus who was out on a morning run near the intramural fields at the 
University of Georgia. May her soul rest in peace.
  Unfortunately, this is what Americans across the country have come to 
expect since President Biden took office. His administration has 
enacted and implemented numerous open-border policies which directly 
and inevitably result in these sorts of tragedies.
  In addition to this terrible tragedy that occurred in Georgia, local 
authorities in Virginia arrested a 32-year-old Venezuelan migrant in 
connection with the sexual assault of a minor. Just like the murderer 
who allegedly killed Laken Riley, this individual also entered the 
country in September of 2022 after being detained and released by U.S. 
Customs and Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas.
  In our Nation's Capital, Washington, D.C., a man accused of shooting 
three District of Columbia police officers was found to be in our 
country illegally with an active deportation order with Immigration and 
Customs Enforcement. All three of these terrible, completely avoidable 
tragedies occurred in the same calendar month, just a week apart.

                              {time}  1215

  Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, pure and simple, these are the consequences 
of

[[Page H701]]

the Biden's administration indefensible open-border policies.
  There is no doubt that President Biden's feckless border policies are 
the direct causes of this once unimaginable level of crime and loss of 
life.
  To make matters worse, just days after both of these immigrants 
entered our country illegally, President Biden, instead of trying to 
secure the border, erroneously stated that the border was actually 
secure and that it was ``not rational'' to deport illegal immigrants 
from Venezuela.
  If deporting illegal immigrants is not rational, then that begs the 
question, Madam Speaker, what is rational? Simply doing nothing but 
keeping the border wide open surely isn't rational.
  As a father of two young children growing up in President Biden's 
United States where every town has become a border town, I fear it is 
only a matter of time until one of these families that I represent in 
middle Tennessee faces the same consequences of the Biden 
administration's open-border policies.
  I pray that day never comes. I also pray the President comes to his 
senses and ends the humanitarian crisis at the southern border that his 
administration's policies have caused.
  The administration has already admitted they have the authority to 
restrict migrants' ability to seek asylum at the border. It is well 
past time that the President used that authority.
  Until then, House Republicans like me will continue sounding the 
alarm and beating the drum to shed light on this administration's open-
border policies and blatant abuse of our immigration laws.
  Border security is national security, and strong borders make for 
strong countries and safe countries.

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