[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 67 (Wednesday, April 17, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H2447-H2448]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 IN RECOGNITION OF THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE DISCOVERY OF NEW YORK BAY BY 
                         GIOVANNI DA VERRAZZANO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
New York (Ms. Malliotakis) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. MALLIOTAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 
anniversary of the discovery of New York Bay by Giovanni da Verrazzano, 
which occurred 500 years ago today.
  Giovanni da Verrazzano of Florence, Italy, was the first to lead an 
expedition to find a western passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the 
Pacific. On April 17, 1524, Verrazzano entered New York Bay, becoming 
the first to chart the East Coast of the United States.
  His discovery expanded maritime knowledge and sparked inspiration for 
other explorations, including Henry Hudson's voyage to New York Bay 
that established New Amsterdam 85 years later.
  Since then, New York City has become a global economic hub for trade 
and commerce and has the highest economic impact of any city in the 
United States.
  To commemorate the significant impact of Verrazzano's discovery, in 
1960, Governor Rockefeller named the bridge in our district connecting 
the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn the Verrazzano Narrows 
Bridge.
  Since 1885, the Statue of Liberty has proudly sat in New York Bay, 
where she welcomed over 12 million immigrants who legally passed 
through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954. Today, New York City is 
home to 8.8 million people, 800,000 of whom are of Italian descent, 
with the largest population of Italian-Americans residing in my 
district.
  New York City takes great pride in Giovanni da Verrazzano's 
discovery, and I join our community in celebrating his historic 
achievements today.


                        The Border is Not Secure

  Ms. MALLIOTAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise as a New York City 
Representative in a post-9/11 world to talk about how concerned I am 
that our border is not secure.
  Since Joe Biden took office, CBP has encountered at least 340 
individuals on the terrorist watch list along the southern border or in 
our interior.
  For example, an Afghan migrant on the terrorist watch list spent 
nearly 1 year inside the United States after he was apprehended and 
released by CBP agents in March of 2023. He was processed at the 
border.
  CBP released him without alerting ICE officials about potential 
terrorism ties, and he was free to fly domestically in the United 
States. He was arrested in February 2024, then released by an 
immigration judge in March, who was not told that he was a national 
security risk.
  Last month, an illegal immigrant from Lebanon caught at the border 
admitted to CBP that he was a member of Hezbollah and was headed to New 
York to try to make a bomb.
  In February of 2024, ICE apprehended another terrorist who was 
allowed to roam in the U.S. for nearly 1 year after crossing the border 
illegally, and the terrorist was a member of Al-Shabaab, who was only 
arrested after ICE became aware of his threat to national security.
  Additionally, in February, a Colombian man on the terrorist watch 
list was caught crossing into the Eagle Pass area.
  In August of last year, it was discovered that a smuggler with ISIS 
ties helped more than a dozen Uzbek migrants into the United States 
over the southern border.
  In April of 2021, CBP announced that they had arrested two Yemeni men 
on the terrorist watch list in separate incidents as they attempted to 
illegally cross the southern border in California, and they were both 
on no-fly lists.
  Again, we have caught at least 340 individuals, either at the border 
or in the interior. However, the more concerning number is who did we 
not catch? We know that nearly 2 million people, estimated by CBP, have 
entered this country without any encounter by government or law 
enforcement. We don't know who they are, where they are, or what their 
intentions are. That comes down to about 800 individuals a day.
  We need to secure our border, particularly with growing threats from

[[Page H2448]]

Iran--who said they want to commit an attack on our own soil--and 
Russia and China. If we are going to send our allies money, which we 
should support our allies, we need to ensure that our own homeland is 
secure against these threats, as well.
  Even the FBI Director is confirming that joint terrorism task forces 
in all 56 of FBI's field offices are occupied with threats coming 
across our border.
  It is unconscionable to me that the President refuses to reverse any 
of his more than 60 border policies that he changed via executive 
order. It is also unconscionable to me that Senator Schumer refuses to 
work with us to force the President to reverse these policies, because 
the President has discretion and put these policies in place to begin 
with and can reverse them.

  I believe our Speaker needs to go back to Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer 
and say: If we are going to pass foreign aid, we must have at least a 
few commonsense border protection measures in there. I don't think it 
is that hard to ask from Republicans or Democrats to say at least let's 
prohibit individuals who are gang members, terrorists, or criminals 
from entering into this country.

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