[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 88 (Tuesday, May 21, 2024)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E533-E534]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   CONDEMNING THE BIDEN BORDER CRISIS AND THE TREMENDOUS BURDENS LAW 
                 ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS FACE AS A RESULT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 15, 2024

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak in opposition to H. 
Res. 1210, ``Condemning the Biden border crisis and the tremendous 
burdens law enforcement officers face as a result''.
  As the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Crime Subcommittee and as 
Senior Member of the Homeland Security Committee, I am deeply 
disappointed in this harmful and misguided bill.
  This resolution is more of the same false and misleading narrative we 
have become accustomed from House Republicans this Congress.
  This resolution, however, goes further and also claims that 
``Democrat elected officials prioritize illegal alien criminals over 
citizens and legal residents of the United States.''
  This is slanderous, wrong, and offensive language that should draw 
universal condemnation from Democrats.
  Let us remember how we got here.
  Last May, House Republicans passed their inhumane, unworkable border 
bill, H.R. 2, over bipartisan opposition.
  They claimed this bill was the only way to secure the border.
  That bill has since failed twice to pass the Senate, rejected both 
times on a bipartisan basis.
  Former President Trump instructed Republicans to reject a bipartisan 
border compromise that Minority Leader McConnell called the strongest 
border bill in 30 years.
  Republicans have said out loud they want to preserve the political 
issue for the election year.
  The best way to secure the border is to expand lawful pathways and 
adequately fund the immigration system.
  And yet, we have not updated our legal immigration system in over 30 
years.
  The more broken the legal immigration system is, the more people will 
try to come to the border as the only means of entry.
  We need more asylum officers and immigration judges to ensure people 
have their day in court, in a fair and expeditious manner.
  However, there has been a refusal to actually solve the problem.
  This resolution accuses of Democrats of not supporting law 
enforcement when time and again, Republicans have refused to take yes 
for an answer and address the issues at the border.
  In addition to rejecting the bipartisan Senate border bill, 
Republicans have consistently refused to support providing additional 
resources and personnel for the border.
  In 2021, all but six current House Republicans voted against the 
Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal, which provided additional funding to 
ports of entry to combat smuggling of people and drugs.
  All but two current House Republicans voted against providing funding 
for border security operations in the FY2023 appropriations omnibus 
legislation.
  That bill provided more than $17 billion to Customs and Border 
Protection (CBP), including funding for an additional 300 Border Patrol 
agents.
  The omnibus also included $60 million to hire 125 CBP officers and 
$70 million for nonintrusive inspection technology to detect narcotics 
and firearms at ports of entry.
  In October of 2023, the Biden administration sent Congress a 
supplemental funding request, which included $13.6 billion for border 
security.
  House Republicans refuse to schedule a vote on this funding request, 
which would provide the Biden administration the resources it needs to 
secure the border and provide additional support for communities 
receiving migrants.
  More specifically, this supplemental funding would pay for an 
additional 1,300 Border Patrol agents; 375 immigration judges, and 
1,600 asylum officers to speed up processing of asylum claims; 1,000 
CBP officers with a focus on countering fentanyl; new detection 
technology for ports of entry; additional investigative capabilities to 
combat fentanyl trafficking; and $1.4 billion more in grants to help 
communities receiving migrants, among other investments.
  By forcing a vote on this resolution, Republicans are showing they 
have no real solutions to address the border.
  I urge Members to not take the bait.
  Rather, let us look at the facts.
  In the Fiscal Year 24 appropriations bill, Congress appropriated over 
$3.4 billion for DHS to maintain and use 41,500 detention beds.

[[Page E534]]

  These are levels of detention similar to those during under the Trump 
administration.
  Despite the claims of this resolution, the Biden administration has 
significantly expanded expedited removal and in ways that many in our 
caucus worry violates due process.
  Since the end of Title 42 last year, the Biden administration has 
removed or returned over 720,000 individuals, including over 109,000 
individual members of family units, including children.
  This is more than the number of people removed in ALL of fiscal year 
2019 under the Trump administration, and more removals and returns than 
every full fiscal year since 2011.
  We also know that immigrants commit crimes at lower rates that 
native-born individuals.
  There are currently 45 million foreign-born people in the United 
States.
  In any large group, there are going to be some people who do bad 
things.
  These people do not represent the group as a whole.
  Unfortunately, Republicans and this resolution, want to use any crime 
committed by an immigrant to fearmonger and scapegoat migrants for 
everything that is wrong in the country.
  But here are the facts: Higher immigration is associated with lower 
crime rates.
  According to a 2015 study by the American Immigration Council, 
between 1990 and 2013, the foreign-born share of the U.S. population 
grew from 7.9 percent to 13.1 percent and the number of unauthorized 
immigrants more than tripled from 3.5 million to 11.2 million.
  During the same period, FBI data indicates that the violent crime 
rate declined 48 percent--which included falling rates of aggravated 
assault, robbery, rape, and murder.
  An NBC News review of available 2024 crime data from the cities 
targeted by Texas's ``Operation Lone Star,'' which buses or flies 
migrants from the border to major cities in the interior--shows overall 
crime levels dropping in those cities that have received the most 
migrants.
  Overall crime is down year after year in Philadelphia, Chicago, 
Denver, New York, and Los Angeles.
  With these facts, we can see that this bill is sadly another 
opportunity for my Republican colleagues to score cheap political 
points on a bill that has no chance to become law while trying to 
target and scapegoat migrants as criminals.
  For these reasons, I urge my colleagues to vote no on this bill.

                          ____________________