[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 49 (Wednesday, March 20, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H1279-H1282]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE ILLEGAL ALIEN INVASION AT OUR SOUTHERN BORDER
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 9, 2023, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Georgia (Mr.
Clyde) for 30 minutes.
General Leave
Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and
include in the Record extraneous material.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Georgia?
There was no objection.
Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, tonight, I will be joined by a number of my
colleagues to talk about the illegal alien invasion at our southern
border and how it is victimizing our citizens.
Last month, a grievous event tragically reminded the American people
that every State is a border State.
On February 22, Laken Riley, pictured here, a 22-year-old nursing
student was murdered by an illegal alien in Athens, Georgia, on the
campus of the University of Georgia.
Laken's murderer was an illegal alien who should never, ever, ever
have even been here. He illegally entered El Paso, Texas, in September
2022 and was then released into the country via President Biden's
significantly expanded parole program, an expansion that is
illegitimate.
He then took a young, beautiful life, Laken's life, in a brutal and
violent way. Laken's father, John, described her as an amazing
daughter, sister, friend, who was selfless and considerate of others,
with a laugh that was infectious and lit up a room.
He also highlighted her faith to me and noted that her love for the
Lord guided her steps and shaped the way she lived her life.
Mr. Speaker, Laken should be alive today, running, laughing with her
friends, studying for nursing school, and spending time with her
parents and siblings, but she is not, and this tragedy was completely
avoidable.
Her murderer is a dangerous criminal alien who took advantage of weak
and bad Biden administration border policies. This horrific story has
truly shaken our State and our entire Nation, and for good reason.
Laken's young life and bright future were cut short at the hands of
an illegal alien. Her murder was 100 percent preventable because her
murderer should never have ever been in our country. Yet radical,
dangerous policies failed both her and her family.
Athens-Clarke County, the county where I have my business, the county
where I have lived for 30 years, the county where as a Navy officer I
taught when the Navy Supply Course School was in Athens-Clarke County.
This county is one of four sanctuary cities in the Peach State. This
sanctuary jurisdiction undoubtedly incentivized illegal immigration,
putting families, small businesses, and students in greater danger. Yet
Athens' Democrat mayor shamelessly claimed that there is no connection
between crime and immigration.
This is a flat-out lie, but it is a lie the mayor would rather tell
than admit the truth: that his own policies played a role in Laken's
murder.
But the buck doesn't stop with the failed leadership in Athens-Clarke
County. This goes all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
As a candidate, Joe Biden instructed illegals to ``surge to the
border.'' As President, he has ignored immigration law, destroyed our
border security, and incentivized illegal immigration.
Notably, Secretary Mayorkas has unabashedly carried out the
President's marching orders, willfully establishing a wide-open border
agenda that has violated our laws and emboldened dangerous criminals
like Laken Riley's murderer to illegally enter the United States.
Once aliens from across the world accept Biden's invitation, they are
immediately released into our communities. In fact, Laken's murderer
was released into the country due to the President's abuse of parole
authority, which the Biden administration has weaponized to funnel
millions of illegal aliens into the United States.
For 3 years now, these open-border policies have been in effect. The
result has been the Biden administration's intentional illegal
invasion. According to recent estimates, nearly 7.3 million illegal
aliens have entered the country under the Biden administration's watch,
a number greater than the individual population of 36 States. That is a
stunning and unsustainable figure.
Clearly, we need to do more than secure the southern border. It is
imperative that we also deport every solitary illegal alien who
accepted the Biden administration's invitation to enter and reside in
our Nation unlawfully.
If we do not deport them, more Americans will suffer the tragic
consequences of President Biden's open-border policies.
The list of victims extends far beyond Laken Riley. In fact, a 32-
year-old illegal alien was recently arrested for sexually assaulting a
14-year-old girl in Virginia. Another illegal alien was recently
charged with first- and second-degree murder for a shooting that killed
a 2-year-old child and injured his mother in Maryland. In Louisiana, an
illegal alien was recently arrested for a series of violent crimes,
including raping a 14-year-old girl at knifepoint and stabbing a man
multiple times while robbing him. In Massachusetts, an illegal Haitian
immigrant was recently charged with raping a 15-year-old girl in a
hotel that housed asylum seekers.
Now, let's go back a couple years. Honestly, what I just said
happened just the last few weeks, and yet the Biden administration has
done nothing.
Let's go back a year or so.
In July 2022, Kayla Hamilton, an American, was sexually assaulted and
murdered in Maryland by a 16-year-old alien and MS-13 gang member from
El Salvador who was allowed to enter the U.S. through the unaccompanied
alien program.
This 16-year-old illegal alien was initially apprehended by Border
Patrol in Texas on March 23, 2022, and then referred to the Office of
Refugee Resettlement.
According to the alien, members of his family paid $4,000 to a guide
who smuggled them to the southwest border. On May 3, 2022, the Office
of Refugee Resettlement placed the alien with a sponsor, his alleged
first cousin in Maryland.
As revealed in his case file, the alien had been arrested by police
in El Salvador on January 21, 2020, for illicit association with the
MS-13 gang. The illegal alien's case file also included information
from law enforcement officials dated August 2022, noting that the alien
had tattoos affiliated with gang activity.
So how did he get here? Through the Biden administration's abuse and
weaponization of the immigrant parole program. This 16-year-old
murderer should never, ever have been allowed in this country.
How many times do I need to say that? How many more Americans have to
be murdered or raped or assaulted by an illegal alien for the President
to act? How many more Americans have to be killed by fentanyl? How many
more innocent Americans have to suffer?
Right now, the President has the executive authority, the power to do
everything, yet he continues to do nothing because this is all by
design. So it is up to Congress to stop this madness by using our
leverage, the power of the purse, to force the White House to do
[[Page H1280]]
the right thing for the American people, yet Republican leadership has
failed to do so.
Two weeks ago, this body passed the first half of the swamp's
omnibus. While this horrendous, backroom negotiated bill had many
flaws, one thing stood out to me more than the rest: My policy rider to
defund sanctuary jurisdictions like Athens-Clarke County where Laken
Riley was murdered was removed from the bill. It was surrendered by our
leadership.
Yet the bill passed under suspension with more Democrat votes
supporting it than Republicans, but 132 Republicans still voted for it.
They voted to keep funding sanctuary cities.
Americans are sick and tired of all talk and no action. Members
continue messaging against the border crisis, then turn around and fund
the Biden administration's policies that are creating this madness.
If we are going to truly secure the border and deport every illegal
alien residing in our great Nation, then we have to fight. We need more
Republicans willing to fight for the American people. I hope to see
more of my colleagues join the fight when we consider the second piece
of the swamp's omnibus, which includes funding for the Department of
Homeland Security later this week.
Despite still not having the bill text, we have a pretty good idea
that this massive government funding package fails to secure our
southern border. Key border security provisions were surrendered, yet
leadership is touting more resources, such as more detention beds for
ICE as a win.
I disagree. Simply adding more resources without actually changing
the Biden administration's open-border policies allows President Biden
and Secretary Mayorkas to simply process and release more illegal
aliens into the country. We don't need more Border Patrol agents that
will simply be used as processing clerks.
Let me be clear: Any Republican who votes for the swamp's second
spending package that doesn't secure our border owns the border crisis
just as much as President Biden.
I am proud to have several of my colleagues here tonight to condemn
President Biden's intentional illegal invasion as well as to discuss
the power that Congress has to put a stop to this crisis.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Biggs), my
friend.
Mr. BIGGS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
It is my pleasure to join him in this Special Order to talk about one
of the most important existential crises that we face in the country
today, and that is our border crisis.
Let's rephrase that. It is the Biden border crisis.
So we have 9 sectors along the southwest border, each one 100 to 150
miles wide and they cover many tens of thousands of miles into the
interior.
The Tucson sector, which is now the hot spot in the last 5 months,
has had more than 312,000 encounters. In that small area, you have more
than 2,000 a day who are being interdicted, and those are the people
who surrender. It might be one of the most remote border areas on the
southwest border on the Tohono O'odham Reservation at the San Miguel
gate.
It might be in Lukeville where, if you were paying attention, Bill
Melugin sent to the world video footage from just a few days ago where
the cartels had cut a hole in the fence and dozens and dozens of
illegal aliens were coming in through that hole.
That is what is happening. What are the numbers? Those are the
numbers. The numbers reach into the millions every year.
{time} 1800
That doesn't include the got-aways, both known and unknown. What
countries are they coming from?
I remember well being down in Yuma, and 25 men of military age came
across. I said: Where are you from?
Well, we are from Russia.
We got the Russian interpreter on the phone, those of us from
Congress.
Then they said: No, no, we are from Ukraine.
We actually happened to have access to a Ukrainian interpreter.
Then they said: Oh, well, actually we really are from Russia.
I have met them from Mali, Mauritania, Guinea, Burkina Faso. Every
country, 180 countries are represented in that pool of people coming
into our country illegally.
What are the results? My good friend from Georgia has given you a
litany of people who have been basically injured, killed, maimed,
robbed, raped by people who have come into this country illegally.
If you were to hear the left, they would tell you, oh, wait a second,
you are saying everybody coming across, you are stigmatizing everyone.
No, we are not stigmatizing everyone. What I am telling you is, if
these people weren't here who aren't supposed to be here, none of this
would have happened. I have friends who have lost children, killed by
illegal aliens.
What do Americans think of this? What do Americans think of this?
Eighty-five percent of them said this is the most important issue. What
do the left do on their little TV shows that few people watch? They
laugh. They laugh that anyone would say that that is an issue in
Virginia or in Georgia or in Montana or anywhere because they simply
don't care about American life.
Mr. Speaker, I join Representative Clyde in calling upon my
colleagues, the Republican colleagues, to understand that we have got
to demand enforcement from this regime. The way you get it is you
actually leverage spending. That is what the Founders gave us.
I call on my colleagues to leverage this minibus, this DHS CR to make
sure we get enforcement. I also call upon the Speaker to bring up our
border security bills every day, bring one up every day. Let's vote on
one every day. Let's give these guys an opportunity to show that they
really care about the border.
Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Arizona for those
inspiring words. I agree with him absolutely, we need to bring up our
border legislation every solitary week.
Now, I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Higgins).
Mr. HIGGINS of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity
to address the disaster at our southern border. The grief that has been
brought upon the American people in the past 3 years is unspeakable. It
was brought on strictly by policy change.
It is the exact same 1,954 miles of border that we had under
President Trump. We have the same equipment, the same men, the same
women. We are spending more money. We spent $20 billion more last year
than we did 3 years ago.
It is not about money. It is not about men or equipment. There is no
enhanced desire by the cartels to make money. They traffic human beings
and drugs. They have been doing it quite successfully for a long time.
We had backed the cartels up very effectively by the time we hit 2019
and 2020 under the Trump administration, under Trump policies.
President Biden, once inaugurated, immediately began flipping those
policies. This is what has happened. This is why you have had 12
million illegal crossings in 3 years. This is why you have 300,000
Americans dead, from opioids smuggled into our country across the
southern border in the past 3 years. It is the number one cause of
death for Americans 18-45 years old. We have never had that in the
history of our country. It is drug poisoning. Our sovereignty has
disintegrated at the southern border.
This body, the people's House, acted last year. H.R. 2, the strongest
border security measure in the history of Congress, was passed in May
of last year with Republican votes and delivered to the Senate. There
it gathers dust. What we demand of our colleagues in the Senate that
are run by the Democratic Party, what we demand from the Democratic-
controlled White House is a clean vote on H.R. 2, the border security
bill that was passed by the people's House in May of last year,
delivered to the Senate in May of last year. We demand a clean vote.
Let America see where does the Senate stand on border security. H.R. 2
is the answer for the crisis that we face, the heartache, wave upon
wave of human misery that our Nation has suffered for the last 3 years
at the southern border. I appreciate this opportunity to address this
ongoing disaster, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Louisiana. Those
are strong words, and those are correct words.
[[Page H1281]]
Now I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy).
Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia for yielding
to me. I appreciate him getting this time on the floor for us to
address such a pressing matter as the national security of the United
States and the well-being of her citizens.
The truth of the matter is, the national security of the United
States and the well-being of her citizens in terms of safety and
security is not well. We are in danger in our country, on our streets,
in our homes from people who are being let into the United States under
the not just misguided but purposeful policies of radical progressive
Democrats led by Joe Biden and as exemplified by my colleagues on the
other side of the aisle in this body and in the Senate purposely
releasing people in the United States they know to be a danger to our
people.
They are using parole policies and asylum policies that we put in
place out of the goodness of our heart to help people around the world,
they are using those very narrow exceptions to the rules that secure
our border to release thousands of people without vetting them
or, frankly, without even caring, into the United States. The result
has been the murder, death, rape, assault of American citizens.
My friend from Georgia mentions Laken Riley. I hate to politicize one
family's devastation in the last month. She has obviously gained
notoriety and caught the attention of the American people, but there
are hundreds, thousands of examples of devastated families, whether you
are talking about from fentanyl poisoning or the absolute disaster that
is a mom in Texas finding her cheerleader daughter dead in the bathtub
in her own home when she went to go see her perform cheerleading in
Texas. That happened in December. Where is the bill named after
Lizbeth? Where is the bill named after Kayla Hamilton, who was raped
and murdered in her own home in Maryland, just up the road from here in
the Nation's Capital. What about the 2-year-old who was murdered in
Montgomery County, Maryland, just outside of the Nation's Capital, by
somebody let out on mass parole by radical, progressive Democrats who
don't give a rip about our Nation's security or the well-being of our
citizens. That is the truth.
However, there is a worse truth, in my opinion. In the face of the
observable endangerment of the American people by radical, progressive
Democrats, Republicans who campaign against it are going to vote
tomorrow--or the next day or whenever they decide to jam us with a bill
that we have not yet read--to fund this. Republican colleagues who will
spend this year campaigning against open borders and campaigning
against the destruction of the lives of Americans at the hands of open
borders led by Democrats--I want to be very clear, it is led and being
carried out by radical, progressive Democrats--but my Republican
colleagues will campaign against it, yet tomorrow they will fund it.
Tomorrow or Friday or Saturday, whenever we get the bill--we haven't
seen it yet--they will spend $1.2 trillion funding Defense which, by
the way, is woke; funding State and Foreign Operations which, by the
way, includes the United Nations and the World Health Organization;
funding all manner of programs that are not good for this country, but
notably the Department of Homeland Security carrying out these mass
paroles, carrying out these mass asylums, carrying out the release of
people into the United States, issuing memoranda saying that ICE should
not actually pull these people up and then deport them from the United
States. We will be funding that.
Now, not all of us. My friend from Georgia, my friend from Virginia
who has joined us, my friend from Louisiana who spoke a minute ago, we
won't vote for it. Republicans could stop it. We could stop it. Some
are choosing not to. Why? Why? I think that is a question that should
be asked.
When Republicans hold the House Chamber, why would they take the
power of the purse and provide funding, hundreds of billions of
dollars, why would they give this administration funding to carry out
policies that release dangerous criminals onto the streets of the
United States, including the known dangerous Venezuelan gang member, a
prison gang member released into this country who killed Laken Riley?
In my own district in New Braunfels, they found just last week a drug
lord who is on the terrorist watch list or the most dangerous watch
list for the FBI, 10 Most Wanted, found in New Braunfels, Texas, which
I represent. I take my family there all the time. This drug lord was
just found and arrested.
This administration is endangering America. My Democratic colleagues
are all too happy to do it, but my Republican colleagues are all too
happy to campaign against it, and then not do a dang thing about it
when they write the check to fund it. Not one Republican should vote to
fund this atrocity. Not one Republican.
I would debate any Republican who wants to come to the floor right
now and debate me on it. You know what? Not one of them will. Not one
Republican will take me up on debating the issue of using the power of
the purse to fund the endangerment of the American people.
Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Roy. I thank him for
his work in the fight to secure our border.
I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Good).
Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friends, the gentleman
from Georgia (Mr. Clyde) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy) for
speaking so effectively on this issue.
We cannot talk enough about the border. In my district, we just did a
survey asking my constituents what is the most important issue, what is
the number one issue facing the country, and the southern border was
the overwhelming response. They realize that is hundreds of miles from
them geographically, but it is coming home to them in my very district
in Bedford and Campbell Counties, just outside greater Lynchburg. They
are otherwise as peaceful and as safe places to live as anyplace in the
country. Both of these counties have recently had sexual assaults
committed by illegal aliens allowed into this country. Wait, let me
check myself: helped into this country, purposely helped into this
country by this President and his open-border policies.
It gets worse every day. We have spoken many times, and we need to
continue to speak about Laken Riley, the young lady from Mr. Clyde's
area of Georgia, brutally murdered by an illegal alien helped into this
country by this President's open-border policies.
To what lengths will this administration go to keep the borders open?
They are fighting the very State of Texas, which is trying to secure
their own border, trying to defend their own citizens, and the
administration is literally suing and fighting and challenging them and
prohibiting them from securing their border and defending their
citizens and trying to keep them safe.
Just in the last couple of days, we had a Lebanese illegal who worked
for Hezbollah for 7 years, who thankfully was apprehended. He said that
he was coming to go to New York City to make a bomb. How many like that
individual might be among the 2 million got-aways? Not the 8 million
who come and surrender to Border Patrol to take advantage of the
generous Biden policies: the free housing, the free travel, the free
healthcare, the free social services, the free education, and all the
rest. The Biden administration takes the ones who surrender in with
open arms at taxpayer expense, provides them with benefits that
American citizens do not receive, makes sure, by the way, that they
have their Second Amendment rights in place, as we saw in the State of
Illinois just recently.
However, then there are the 2 million who don't want that and
actually pay the cartels more to evade apprehension, to evade encounter
with Border Patrol because these are the criminals. These are the gang
members; these are the traffickers of drugs and children and sex
trafficking and the ones with the criminal backgrounds. How many more
among that 2 million are like that individual from Lebanon, the
Hezbollah member who said he wanted to go to New York to make a bomb?
{time} 1815
What is going to happen this Friday? We think it is going to be
Friday. We don't have bill text yet. We are going to vote--not myself
and my friend from Georgia--but we are going to vote to
[[Page H1282]]
fund this government, to give this administration billions of dollars
more to continue facilitating this very border invasion that we have
talked about for these past 3 years.
We even heard in a meeting of our own Republican Conference this
morning that some of our members didn't care when we got the bill text.
They didn't care if it was 72 minutes, they said, or 72 hours. They
were going to vote for it anyway, irrespective of what the contents
might be.
They didn't care what was in it. They didn't care how that estimated
$1.2 trillion was going to be spent. They didn't care what the policies
were going to be.
They just wanted it passed by Friday, I guess so they could go home,
so they could go to their fundraisers. Yet, we are going to fund this
government and these policies that we campaigned against.
I don't need 72 hours to vote ``no'' against a bad bill that doesn't
reverse the Biden-Pelosi-Schumer policies under which the American
people are suffering.
I don't need 72 hours to evaluate that and vote ``no.'' If I was
going to vote ``yes'' like some of my colleagues, I might want to
actually have 72 hours to know what policies I was owning and that I
was responsible for funding before I cast my ``yes'' vote.
The last thing I will say to my good friend from Georgia: Why should
we not attach H.R. 2, the border security bill?
If we are going to fund Chuck Schumer's and Joe Biden's spending bill
with the policies that we stand against and spending levels that are
$60 billion higher this year, why not at least attach border security
to it, H.R. 2, and demand that the Democrats choose between shutting
down the border or shutting down the government because they don't care
about the border invasion?
Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Clyde for yielding time.
Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his remarks, and I
applaud his efforts to stop President Biden's illegal invasion. He is
right. We need to attach H.R. 2, the border security bill, to this
particular funding legislation.
I thank all of my colleagues who participated tonight in this Special
Order. We can and we must do more in the fight to protect Americans
from Joe Biden's open border policies.
The most powerful way we can do this is through the power of the
purse. We have an opportunity to take a stand against the Biden
administration's intentional illegal invasion through the funding
fight, and I urge my colleagues to do so. Otherwise, more avoidable
tragedies like Laken Riley's murder will continue to devastate our
Nation, and we will create more victims of our citizens.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________