[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 120 (Wednesday, July 24, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H4894-H4902]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H. RES. 1371, STRONGLY CONDEMNING THE 
 BIDEN ADMINISTRATION AND ITS BORDER CZAR, KAMALA HARRIS'S, FAILURE TO 
                    SECURE THE UNITED STATES BORDER

  Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on 
Rules, I call up House Resolution 1376 and ask for its immediate 
consideration.
  The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:

                              H. Res. 1376

       Resolved, That upon adoption of this resolution it shall be 
     in order without intervention of any point of order to 
     consider in the House the resolution (H. Res. 1371) strongly 
     condemning the Biden Administration and its Border Czar, 
     Kamala Harris's, failure to secure the United States border. 
     The amendment to the preamble printed in the report

[[Page H4895]]

     of the Committee on Rules accompanying this resolution shall 
     be considered as adopted. The resolution, as amended, shall 
     be considered as read. The previous question shall be 
     considered as ordered on the resolution and preamble, as 
     amended, to adoption without intervening motion or demand for 
     division of the question except one hour of debate equally 
     divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority 
     member of the Committee on Homeland Security or their 
     respective designees.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Pennsylvania is 
recognized for 1 hour.
  Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I 
yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. 
McGovern), my good friend, pending which I yield myself such time as I 
may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded 
is for the purpose of debate only.


                             General Leave

  Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their 
remarks.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this rule and in support of the 
underlying legislation. The rule provides for consideration of H. Res. 
1371, a resolution strongly condemning the Biden administration and its 
border czar, Harris, for their failure to secure the U.S. border under 
a closed rule with 1 hour of debate equally divided and controlled by 
the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Homeland 
Security or their respective designees.
  Mr. Speaker, since Biden-Harris took office, American leadership both 
at home and abroad has become weak and feckless, and that is just 
putting it mildly. On the global stage, we have seen the Houthis 
creating chaos in the Red Sea after the administration delisted them as 
a foreign terrorist organization. Then, just last week, they 
successfully launched a deadly suicide drone attack in Tel Aviv.
  Iran has grown stronger and more dangerous than ever. Their proxies, 
Hamas and Hezbollah, are launching a two-front war against Israel and 
have attacked our servicemembers over 100 times since October 7. Now 
their nuclear program is 1 or 2 weeks away from the time needed to 
produce enough weapons-grade material for a nuclear weapon. Even 
Secretary Blinken stated: Where we are now is not a good place.
  I can continue talking about the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, 
about Vladimir Putin invading Ukraine following the administration's 
decision to green-light Nord Stream 2 or I could talk about record-high 
inflation reaching over 20 percent under Biden-Harris, but the biggest 
failure is the crisis at the southern border.
  Just 64 days into this administration, Biden named Harris his border 
czar. Now my friends from across the aisle are trying to cover up her 
failures as border czar and trying to argue that she was never even in 
charge, but to their chagrin, I brought receipts with me.
  Let me read you a few headlines and quotes. Here is Axios on April 
14, 2021: ``The number of unoccupied minors crossing the border has 
reached crisis levels. Harris, appointed by Biden as border czar, said 
she would be looking at the `root causes' that drive migration.'' That 
was Axios in 2021.
  Here is another headline from the Associated Press on March 24, 2021: 
``Biden taps VP Harris to lead response to border challenges.''
  Here is another one from Axios, March 24, 2021: ``Biden puts Harris 
in charge of border crisis.''
  Just wait for it, here is President Biden on that same day, March 24, 
2021: `` . . . she is the most qualified person to do it--to lead our 
efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle and the countries that 
help--are going to need help in stemming the movement of so many folks, 
stemming the migration to our southern border.'' That was Joe Biden.
  The President went on further: `` . . . it is not her full 
responsibility and job, but she is leading the effort because I think 
the best thing to do is put someone who, when he or she speaks, they 
don't have to wonder about is that where the President is. When she 
speaks, she speaks for me. Doesn't have to check with me.''
  Now the debate has been settled. President Biden clearly put Vice 
President Harris in charge of the border. What did the border czar 
Harris do? The Biden-Harris administration issued 94 executive actions 
related to the border. They halted the construction of the border wall 
and ended remain in Mexico, and they established the catch and release 
program.
  What were the results? In February 2021, the country witnessed a 174 
percent increase in southwest border encounters compared to February of 
2020. On her watch, there have been over 9.6 million illegal immigrant 
encounters nationwide. Experts estimate that the number of known got-
aways--those are illegal immigrants who have evaded capture--exceed 2 
million.
  In May of 2021, CBP encountered over 180,000 individuals attempting 
to enter the country illegally along the southwest border. That was a 
staggering 675 percent increase from May of 2020. Since fiscal year 
2021, 378 illegal aliens on the terrorist watch list have been 
apprehended at our southern border.
  In June, NBC reported that over 400 illegal immigrants with ties to 
ISIS entered the U.S. under border czar Harris, and the whereabouts of 
50 of these individuals are still unknown. In fiscal year 2024, there 
have been a record-breaking 31,000 Chinese nationals encountered at the 
southwest border.
  Perhaps the worst stat of them all: We have lived through 39 months 
where the total encounters have been higher than even the highest month 
seen under President Trump. This is a really simple vote. If you are 
okay with those results, go ahead and vote ``no.'' If you think border 
czar Harris has failed the American people, vote ``yes.'' It is really 
that simple.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this rule, and I reserve 
the balance of my time.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time 
as I may consume.
  Before I even get into my speech, the gentleman referred to Axios as 
this mainstream publication that referred to the Vice President as the 
border czar. I think he might have missed the correction that Axios 
issued. An editor's note here said: This article has been updated and 
clarified to note that Axios was among the news outlets that 
incorrectly labeled Harris a border czar in 2021.

  I am happy to pass on the correction. Again, for the record, I think 
my Republican friend should stick to the facts.
  Honestly, Mr. Speaker, I have to say I don't think we should even be 
spending a single second on this debate because this resolution is a 
total and complete insult to this institution.
  This all started with an emergency meeting, an emergency meeting in 
the Rules Committee last night. An emergency. Drop everything and come 
to the Rules Committee. What did the Republicans bring up? Not 
legislation to help working Americans, not a bill to ensure the safety 
of our communities, not something to actually secure the southern 
border or fix our broken immigration system. No, no, no, none of that. 
They called an emergency meeting to attack Vice President Harris. That 
is the emergency.
  They want to hold a Trump rally here in the Capitol Building. They 
are weaponizing Congress and using our time to produce a political 
attack ad. Let's set the record straight. This resolution originally 
called Vice President Harris Biden's border czar. Not because that was 
her title, but because of a lie that MAGA media outlets just made up.
  The Vice President was never put in charge of the border. She was 
given a diplomatic role to focus on resolving some of the long-term, 
big-picture root causes of immigration crisis. Her job was to help give 
migrants options in their home countries so that fewer of them would 
make the journey north. Guess what? She delivered. There were

[[Page H4896]]

$5.2 billion in private sector commitments that will give people jobs, 
opportunity, and hope in their home countries. That is what leadership 
looks like. That is what action looks like.
  Do you know what happened? Illegal border crossings just hit a 3-year 
low in June, Mr. Speaker. Let me repeat that. Illegal border crossings 
currently are way down, but that is not what you will hear from the 
other side today. They are going to twist themselves into knots blaming 
everything on Kamala Harris.
  However, their blame game just highlights what is going on here. 
Republicans don't care about fixing our immigration system. They had a 
chance to do something, and they blocked bipartisan progress for their 
own political gain. On day one in office, President Biden and Vice 
President Harris put forth a plan to create a fair and just immigration 
system. Republicans refused to act.
  President Biden and Vice President Harris then worked across the 
aisle to put together a historic bipartisan immigration bill. Trump 
told Republicans to kill it, and they did. They want a crisis at the 
border because it helps them with their political messaging.
  What do they bring to the floor instead? They bring a pointless, 
useless, nonbinding resolution. It has all the legislative authority of 
a FOX News sound bite or a Trump Truth Social rant.
  We know how this is going to go. The other side is going to rant and 
rave about numbers. They will tell very sad stories about families that 
have been impacted by our broken immigration system, stories that, 
honestly, do break my heart. However, what Republicans will not do is 
actually do anything about it.
  This meaningless, feckless, slanderous resolution won't help a single 
grieving family. It won't do a single thing to make Americans safer. 
Nothing. It won't strengthen our border. It won't create a better 
immigration system. It is just a chance for House Republicans to bash 
someone that they are afraid of.
  They are melting down over Kamala Harris. I mean, they have 
completely lost their minds since she became the Democratic Party's 
presumptive nominee. They are scared. They are scared, Mr. Speaker, 
because she offers America something that Donald Trump could never. She 
offers decency, unity, and hope. I get it. I get it. Republicans are 
scared of the excitement surrounding her candidacy. Maybe they are 
afraid their nominee is too boring or won't be able to keep up. After 
all, he is the oldest Presidential nominee in our Nation's history. 
Maybe they are afraid they are going to lose.
  You would think they would focus on actually passing something 
meaningful. They have canceled Congress next week because they are too 
incompetent to even pass their own appropriations bills. Three of the 
four funding bills were pulled this week because Republicans didn't 
have the votes. It really is sad because the United States Congress 
should be a place where we advance legislation that actually helps 
people, but because House Republicans are incapable of doing that, they 
are rallying behind this do-nothing, pathetic, purely political 
resolution.
  Mr. Speaker, they should be embarrassed. This resolution is beneath 
the dignity of this institution, and they should be ashamed of 
themselves.
  I reserve the balance of my time.

                              {time}  1800

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Feenstra). The Chair reminds Members to 
refrain from engaging in personalities toward nominees for the Office 
of the President.
  Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, if you want to talk about being ashamed, let's talk 
about who should be ashamed. It is Biden and Harris. They have been a 
complete disaster, especially with the southern border.
  Excuse me for being so audacious as to bring facts and figures to a 
debate, but I guess I have to apologize for bringing more facts and 
figures to a debate. Let's go through a few of them.
  The Biden-Harris administration has failed to remove 99.7 percent of 
illegal immigrants released in the United States. Here is another stat: 
In June, there were 130,419 illegal immigrant encounters at our 
southern border. This is roughly 4,300 daily encounters, which is--wait 
for this--four times more than the definition of a crisis that was set 
by Obama's own DHS Secretary Johnson, who said in 2019 that more than 
1,000 encounters a day would overwhelm the system. That was President 
Obama's DHS Secretary.
  Do you want to talk about more facts and figures? In May 2024, 
Committee on Homeland Security Republicans released documents showing 
the Biden administration--wait for this--secretly flew over 400,000 
illegal immigrants into our country.
  Harris still has visited our southern border only once since she 
became border czar. It took her a total of 93 days to make a token trip 
to El Paso, which is 800 miles from the sector experiencing the worst 
numbers.
  Then, in an interview with NBC's Lester Holt, Harris was asked: Do 
you have any plans to visit the border?
  She replied: At some point, we are going to the border. Then, she 
said: We have been to the border.
  Lester Holt replied: You haven't been to the border.
  Harris replied: And I haven't been to Europe.
  You just can't make this stuff up.
  Then, former Border Patrol Chief Ortiz stated: ``I have never had one 
conversation with the President or the Vice President, for that matter. 
I was the chief of the Border Patrol. I commanded 21,000 people. That 
is a problem.''
  Current Border Chief Owens felt her absence, as well, reporting that 
the VP has not spoken with him since she was appointed in July 2023.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Burgess), the chairman of the Rules Committee.
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, honestly, I keep hearing the term ``MAGA'' 
used by the other side. I am referred to as MAGA. You keep saying that 
word. I don't think you know what it means. It is an acronym that 
stands for Make America Great Again. I don't know why anyone would take 
offense to that. If anything, it is something that should bring us all 
pride.
  The nickname ``czar'' is shorthand that has been used by the media. 
It is not new. This goes back to the administration of Franklin 
Roosevelt.
  I think the point that many of us would like to make is that it is no 
secret that the mainstream media is basically a mouthpiece for the 
Democratic Party. It has been for years.
  It is ironic that today suddenly the mainstream media has decided the 
use of the term ``czar,'' which they threw around freely during the 
Obama administration, threw around freely earlier in this 
administration, now that term is one that, well, they used it 
inappropriately.
  I will help the ranking member. I brought the Axios quote that he 
referenced because now, this morning, magically they say they were 
wrong 3 years ago when we referred to Vice President Harris as a czar.
  Again, the term has been used under Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson, 
Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush, 
President Obama, and twice under President Trump.
  Who can forget the famous car czar, Steven Rattner? Who can forget 
the healthcare czar in the Obama administration, Nancy DeParle?
  These terms were used as an effort to elevate someone's status. They 
were working in the White House on a particular issue. They had never 
gone through Senate confirmation.
  Vice President Harris was appointed by President Biden to fix the 
crisis at the border, and my constituents in Texas have witnessed 
firsthand that the situation on the border is not fixed. Communities 
are constantly being flooded by illegal immigrants. This leads to the 
flow of drugs and the rise of crime.
  Now, because she is the presumptive nominee for President, to protect 
her campaign, the leftist media is trying to change the story and 
mislead the American people. Republicans are being accused of 
fabricating the title, yet those same media outlets that were 
proclaiming her the border czar are now claiming that this was falsely 
reported by their news outlets, that this was falsely reported 3 years 
ago.
  Regardless of how the minority wants to describe her, she was tasked

[[Page H4897]]

with managing the border. On her watch, well over 9 million illegal 
immigrant encounters occurred. Illegal immigrants who evaded capture 
are well over 2 million. American lives have been lost as a result of 
the Vice President's failure of her principal task of defending the 
border.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward 
the President or Vice President.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, you can't make this stuff up. First of all, let me set 
the record straight.
  The original version of this resolution said that President Biden 
asked Vice President Kamala Harris to serve as the administration's 
border czar, which he did not do. Someone made it up, I think. I don't 
know.
  After my colleagues and I pointed out that fact, the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania and the Republican side of the committee scrambled to try 
to find a shred of proof that, in fact, Biden actually appointed her as 
a border czar, and they couldn't find anything.

  So, they made a frantic last-minute change to now say that Vice 
President Harris ``came to be known colloquially as the Biden 
administration's border czar.''
  I mean, we caught you, but come on. This would be comical if it 
weren't such a monumental waste of time and taxpayer dollars, and all 
for a resolution that does absolutely nothing.
  The gentleman from Pennsylvania went on a big rant, throwing around 
all kinds of numbers and identifying all kinds of problems we are faced 
with, and I am trying to figure out where in this four-page resolution 
there is anything that would do anything to solve any of the issues 
that he raised. There is nothing.
  This is a nonbinding resolution. This will never become law. This 
doesn't even go to the Senate. This is like voting on a press release. 
I mean, what a colossal waste of time.
  My Republican friends love to complain, but they don't like to do 
anything to fix anything, and this is the latest example. What a waste 
of time for this institution to have to concern itself with a glorified 
press release.
  Mr. Speaker, I am going to ask unanimous consent to include in the 
Record an article from Scripps News titled: ``No, VP Kamala Harris was 
never named `border czar.' ''
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Massachusetts?
  There was no objection.

           No, VP Kamala Harris Was Never Named `Border Czar'

         [From Scripps News San Diego, 11:27 am, July 22, 2024]

       President Biden tasked Harris to address the root causes of 
     migration, not border security.
       Within months of taking office in 2021, Vice President 
     Kamala Harris was assigned a difficult task concerning the 
     U.S. southern border, checking in with Central American 
     governments to address the root causes of immigration 
     problems in the United States.
       The Trump campaign has already labeled that effort a 
     failure, while Democrats blame the other side.
       The assignment for Harris was to focus on what was 
     happening south of the border--in the countries where 
     migrants are originating. She was never actually named a 
     ``border czar,'' a moniker coined by Republicans.
       ``I've asked the vice president of the United States 
     yesterday to be the lead person on dealing with focusing on 
     the fundamental reasons why people leave Honduras, Guatemala, 
     and El Salvador in the first place,'' Biden said in 2021.
       House Speaker Mike Johnson used the term ``czar'' when 
     calling her completely inept on Sunday. Other Republicans 
     have followed suit.
       Harris traveled to Mexico and Guatemala in June 2021, and 
     in her remarks, focused on economic instability, violence and 
     corruption, telling migrants the border is not open.
       ``The goal of our work is to help Guatemalans find hope at 
     home,'' Harris said at the time. ``At the same time, I want 
     to be clear to folks in this region who are thinking about 
     making the dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border: 
     Do not come. Do not come.''
       Meanwhile, Harris faced sharp criticism for not going to 
     the border itself and bristled when pressed in an NBC News 
     interview why she had not been to the border.
       Just weeks after the NBC interview, Harris visited the 
     southern border, again telling migrants to not come.
       In El Paso, she toured Border Patrol Facilities and met 
     with groups that help migrants. Again, her focus was on what 
     causes people to come to the U.S. in the first place. She 
     largely left enforcement of border security to Homeland 
     Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
       Over the next two years, the vice president secured more 
     than $5 billion to address the root causes of migration out 
     of Central America. Nearly $1 billion was targeted to the 
     Central American Forward initiative, developing jobs and 
     women's empowerment programs.
       The Biden administration has deported or expelled nearly 
     4.5 million people, the most for any single president since 
     George W. Bush, according to federal data.
       Harris has agreed with criticism that the U.S. immigration 
     system is ``broken,'' saying in March the U.S. needs to fix 
     it. But she points the blame at Senate Republicans pushed by 
     former President Donald Trump to extinguish a bipartisan 
     border security deal. Harris claimed Trump would prefer to 
     run on a problem than to fix it.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I request unanimous consent to include in 
the Record a Time magazine article titled: ``Kamala Harris Was Never 
Biden's `Border Czar.' Here's What She Really Did.''
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Massachusetts?
  There was no objection.

                  [From TIME Magazine, July 23, 2024]

 Kamala Harris Was Never Biden's `Border Czar.' Here's What She Really 
                                  Did

                         (By Vera Bergengruen)

       On her first foreign trip as Vice President in June 2021, 
     Kamala Harris was tasked with delivering a blunt message in 
     Guatemala City. ``I want to be clear to folks in this region 
     who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the 
     United States-Mexico border: Do not come,'' she said at a 
     press conference, pausing for effect. ``Do not come.''
       Three years later, that sound bite may come to haunt 
     Harris' nascent presidential campaign. Despite her warning, 
     border crossings reached historic highs during the Biden 
     Administration. Republican critics cast the episode as a 
     symbol of Harris's ineffective tenure as President Biden's 
     ``border czar,'' a misleading label they applied after she 
     was charged with helming diplomatic efforts to address the 
     root causes of migration from Central America to the U.S.
       Kamala Harris had one job,'' Nikki Haley told the crowd at 
     the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week. 
     ``One job. And that was to fix the border. Now imagine her in 
     charge of the entire country.''
       In fact, Harris was never put in charge of the border or 
     immigration policy. Nor was she involved in overseeing law 
     enforcement efforts or guiding the federal response to the 
     crisis. Her mandate was much narrower: to focus on examining 
     and improving the underlying conditions in the Northern 
     Triangle of Central America--El Salvador, Guatemala, and 
     Honduras--which has been racked by decades of poverty, war, 
     chronic violence, and political instability. The strategy 
     relied on allocating billions for economic programs and 
     stimulating private-sector investment in the region in hopes 
     that these programs would ultimately lead fewer migrants to 
     make the dangerous journey north.
       It was the first high-profile assignment in Harris' tenure 
     as Vice President, and it was an especially thankless one. At 
     best, addressing the ``push factors'' that spur migration 
     would lead to incremental improvements and take a generation 
     to yield results. At worst, it would make Harris the face of 
     the border crisis, one of the Biden administration's biggest 
     political vulnerabilities. ``To the extent that this was a 
     useful assignment, she did reasonably well in getting the 
     private sector to invest in Central America, says Muzaffar 
     Chishti, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Migration Policy 
     Institute. ``But it was an assignment that could not produce 
     results anytime soon.''
       The so-called ``root causes strategy'' focused on improving 
     economic and security conditions by creating jobs, combating 
     corruption, improving human and labor rights, and reducing 
     violence. Harris allocated funds for humanitarian relief from 
     natural disasters, and directed more than 10 million COVID-l9 
     vaccines to the Northern Triangle countries. She held 
     bilateral meetings with the region's leaders, as well as 
     meetings with NGOs, business executives and human rights 
     advocates. She worked with the U.S. Justice Department to 
     launch an AntiCorruption task force focused on prosecuting 
     corruption cases with ties to the region, as well as Anti-
     Migrant Smuggling task forces in Mexico and Guatemala.
       Most importantly, Harris spearheaded a public-private 
     partnership that, as of March 2024, had secured commitments 
     from major U.S. and multi-national companies to invest more 
     than $5 billion in the region. The Vice President ``put her 
     name on the line with very serious senior CEOs and kind of 
     created a brand appeal for Central America that didn't 
     exist,'' says Ricardo Zuniga, who until recently served as 
     the U.S. special envoy to Central America.
       Harris also spent time in Washington communicating with 
     regional leaders. One tangible result, according to two 
     former U.S. officials, was that it gave the U.S. the standing 
     and relationships to help prevent Guatemalan prosecutors from 
     overturning the results of last year's presidential election,

[[Page H4898]]

     which was won by anti-corruption outsider Bernardo Arevalo. 
     While delayed, the ultimately peaceful transition of power 
     avoided the political instability that Biden Administration 
     officials feared could cause a spike in migration. The U.S. 
     applied public pressure through sanctions and visa 
     restrictions on officials they accused of undermining the 
     democratic process, as well as behind the scenes. Harris's 
     team was directly involved, especially her national security 
     adviser Philip Gordon, who traveled to the region to push for 
     a peaceful democratic transfer of power, according to the two 
     former U.S. officials.
       But the narrow mandate given to Harris ignored shifting 
     migration patterns, experts say. The slow process of 
     addressing the ``push factors,'' or reasons that migrants 
     leave their countries, says Chisthi, can't compete with the 
     ``pull factors''--the economic and safety incentives that 
     draw people to the U.S. When Biden assumed office, officials 
     thought Central America would continue to be the epicenter of 
     migration pressure. ``We were wrong,'' says Zuniga. After the 
     initial surge, migration from the Northern Triangle largely 
     stabilized. By December 2023, 54 percent of encounters at the 
     southern border involved citizens of countries other than 
     Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, according to 
     U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
       Much of Harris's work failed to break through back home. 
     Instead, she became the target of Republican broadsides about 
     the border crisis and was repeatedly criticized for not 
     visiting the U.S.-Mexico border. ``She's dealing with a 
     narrative problem,'' says Zuniga. With immigration topping 
     the list of Americans' concerns, according to recent Gallup 
     polls, an ongoing humanitarian crisis at the border, and 
     political deadlock on immigration reform and funding, Harris 
     emerged as the most visible scapegoat.
       As they shift their focus from Biden to Harris, it's clear 
     that Republicans plan to attack Harris's role on immigration 
     issues. ``The border crisis is a Kamala Harris crisis,'' 
     former President Trump's running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, 
     declared at a July 22 rally. A recent National Republican 
     Senatorial Committee memo outlining talking points calls her 
     ``the architect of [Biden's] biggest failure.'' In a post on 
     Truth Social on July 23, Trump said her ``incompetence gave 
     us the WORST and MOST DANGEROUS Border anywhere in the 
     World.'' Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said if Harris 
     is elected, he will ``need to triple the border wall, razor 
     wire barriers and National Guard on the border.''
       Harris has a broader record on immigration, including 
     backing a bipartisan border-security deal aimed at reducing 
     border crossings earlier this year. As a Senator, she was an 
     outspoken advocate of legal protections for DACA recipients, 
     made headlines for aggressively questioning Trump immigration 
     officials, and derided the then-President's border wall as a 
     ``medieval vanity project.'' But it's clear the ``border 
     czar'' label has become a political liability.
       Some Harris allies have expressed frustration with Biden 
     for putting her in this position. In doing so, he was 
     repeating a familiar pattern--it was a portfolio Biden 
     himself was given as Vice President. In 2014, when a surge in 
     children and families from Central America overwhelmed the 
     U.S. immigration system, then-President Barack Obama tasked 
     him with leading the international response to the crisis. 
     ``The solution to this problem is to address the root causes 
     of this immigration in the first place,'' Biden said on a 
     trip to Guatemala City that summer. ``Especially poverty, 
     insecurity and the lack of the rule of law.''
       Seven years later, little had changed when Harris gave the 
     same speech, in the same place. Politically, ``the problem is 
     that no one cares about the root causes,'' says Chisthi. 
     ``It's too abstract. And frankly, very little can be done 
     about them in the short run, while the public is focused on 
     what is happening with the border today.''
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the 
Record a July 17, 2024, article from The New York Times titled: ``Why 
Republicans Keep Calling Kamala Harris the `Border Czar.' ''
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Massachusetts?
  There was no objection.

New York Times: Why Republicans Keep Calling Kamala Harris the 'Border 
                                 Czar'

                (By Jazmine Ulloa and Nicholas Nehamas)

       As Democrats tangle over the re-election prospects of 
     President Biden, Republicans at their national convention 
     this week have trained some of their most intense criticism 
     on Vice President Kamala Harris.
       They have tied her to an administration that they say has 
     led to increases in crime and inflation. They have cast her 
     an enabler of an aging and ineffective president. They have 
     blamed her for record levels of migrant crossings at the 
     border.
       But perhaps no phrase has been deployed more than this one: 
     ``border czar.''
       ``Kamala Harris isn't able to do any job. She was appointed 
     border czar,'' said Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida on 
     Wednesday to a couple of snickers in the audience. 
     ``Appointing Kamala Harris to oversee the border is like 
     appointing Bernie Madoff to oversee your retirement plan.''
       But Ms. Harris was not, in fact, appointed border czar, nor 
     was she tasked with addressing the broader problems plaguing 
     the border itself, where minors have at times slept on the 
     floors of overcrowded facilities for days beyond the legal 
     limit. Rather she was deputized by President Biden with the 
     diplomatic mission of solving the ``root causes'' of 
     migration from countries like Guatemala, El Salvador and 
     Honduras, tackling the issues that spur people to flee in the 
     first place, like drug violence and lack of economic 
     opportunity.
       It was the same politically unsavory task that former 
     President Barack Obama delegated to Mr. Biden when he served 
     as Mr. Obama's vice president. And it's a task that has only 
     become harder--and more politically polarized--since then, 
     becoming perhaps the thorniest issue facing the Biden-Harris 
     administration.
       Brian Fallon, campaign spokesman for Ms. Harris, said 
     former President Donald J. Trump and his party have 
     ``resorted to lying about the vice president's record,'' 
     after Mr. Trump tanked a bipartisan border deal earlier this 
     year.
       ``As a former district attorney and attorney general, she 
     has stood up to fraudsters and felons like Trump her entire 
     career,'' he said. ``Trump's lies won't stop her from 
     continuing to prosecute the case against him on the biggest 
     issues in this race.''
       But attacking Ms. Harris serves several functions, 
     Republican and Democratic strategists said. Republicans see 
     her as a possible alternative to lead the Democratic ticket 
     if Mr. Biden steps aside, with his campaign under pressure 
     over concerns about his re-election bid. And if that does not 
     happen, as Mr. Biden has vowed to stay in the race, she 
     remains a powerful figure with the potential to energize the 
     parts of the coalition seen as up for grabs: women, young 
     people and voters of color.
       Some speakers like Nikki Haley, Mr. Trump's one-time 
     presidential rival, have long sought to convince Republicans 
     that a vote for Mr. Biden will be a vote for Ms. Harris, 
     arguing that Mr. Biden is too old to finish his second term 
     even if he is re-elected.
       ``You never want to miss an opportunity to lay out the case 
     that the Biden-Harris administration has been a disaster,'' 
     said Dave Carney, a Republican political strategist at the 
     convention.
       So the calls of ``border czar'' from the stage have 
     continued.
       On Monday, Bob Unanue, the president of Goya Foods and 
     chairman of the Hispanic Leadership Coalition, insulted Ms. 
     Harris by riffing on the pronunciation of her name in Spanish 
     to denigrate her as ineffective. ``Our border czar, `Que-
     mala' Harris--that means `so bad'--and we have enough bad, we 
     need some goodness--was missing in action,'' he said.

  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, contrary to what the gentleman keeps 
saying, the idea that Kamala Harris is the border czar was invented by 
rightwing media.
  Let me read to you from the article I just inserted: ``Ms. Harris was 
not, in fact, appointed border czar, nor was she tasked with addressing 
the broader problems plaguing the border itself.''
  It goes on to say: ``Rather, she was deputized by President Biden 
with the diplomatic mission of solving the `root causes' of migration 
from countries like Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, tackling the 
issues that spur people to flee in the first place, like drug violence 
and lack of economic opportunity.''
  Mr. Speaker, in fact, my Republican colleagues had to change their 
resolution, as I mentioned, at the last minute in the Rules Committee 
last night because we caught them. They actually acknowledged, by 
changing their resolution, that President Biden never, in fact, named 
Vice President Harris the border czar. They changed their resolution to 
acknowledge the fact that ``border czar'' is a term that basically they 
made up.
  Mr. Speaker, why are we here? Why are we doing this? We are doing 
this because they are afraid of the Vice President. She is drawing huge 
crowds. There is incredible excitement, and they are in a panic. They 
don't know what to do.
  God forbid they bring any legislation to the floor to actually help 
the American people or help solve any crisis that we are faced with. 
Instead, a glorified press release comes to the floor so that they can 
rant and rave, point fingers, yell and scream, and get everybody all up 
in arms.
  The bottom line is that this is like one of the biggest wastes of 
time that I can recall ever coming to this floor, and we have done a 
lot of things here under their leadership that I think is a waste of 
time.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I have seen gaslighting, but I have never seen 
gaslighting to

[[Page H4899]]

this extent. This is quite amazing. Before we get into gaslighting, 
let's talk about a quick history lesson.
  The President that I recall throwing around the term ``czar'' was 
President Obama. He had a car czar with the cash for clunkers program. 
It is kind of funny when you think about it. This is the same President 
who allowed Russia to invade Crimea. This is the same President who 
went up to the then-President of Russia, I believe, Dmitry Medvedev, 
and said: I just need a little flexibility. Tell Vlad I just have to 
get through this election cycle, and then we can talk.
  That President named a czar, and that became part of our lexicon, and 
now we are being attacked because we are calling Harris the border 
czar.
  Axios, as I said before, April 14, 2021, ran an article referring to 
Harris as border czar. Again: ``The number of unaccompanied minors 
crossing the border has reached crisis levels. Harris, appointed by 
Biden as border czar''--it says that right here in the article--``said 
she would be looking at the `root causes' that drive migration.''
  Now, you can say Axios retracted that. They retracted that 3 years 
after, when that became politically inconvenient.
  The Democrats are now trying to say that Harris had nothing to do 
with the border. Unfortunately for the Democrats, we have a slew of 
other statements and articles that say that Biden put Harris in charge 
of the border.
  Here is Axios again, March 24, 2021. The title of the article is: 
``Biden puts Harris in charge of border crisis.'' It doesn't get more 
clear than that.
  Here are remarks by the President when he was at the State Dining 
Room on March 24, 2021. This is Biden talking about Harris: ``She is 
the most qualified person to do it--to lead our efforts with Mexico and 
the Northern Triangle and the countries that help--are going to need 
help in stemming the movement of so many folks, stemming the migration 
to our southern border.''
  Again, that is President Biden telling people at a state dinner that 
he is putting Harris in charge of the border.
  Here is another AP article, titled: ``Biden taps VP Harris to lead 
response to border challenges.''
  You can quibble about names, if she was called the border czar, which 
is popular in our lexicon, or if she was called whatever. The fact 
remains the President put the Vice President in charge of managing the 
border crisis, and it has been an abysmal failure.
  The stats speak for themselves. I will get to more stats later on in 
the debate.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. 
Langworthy), a fellow member of the Rules Committee.
  Mr. LANGWORTHY. Mr. Speaker, hundreds of thousands of Americans die 
every year from fentanyl. Communities, including many in my own 
district, have been ripped apart by the scourge of this deadly poison.

  I have hosted roundtables with local law enforcement, families of 
victims, and other advocates all across my district. One thing I have 
consistently heard is that we need to stop the flow of fentanyl into 
this country.
  Our police officers are struggling to keep up with the constant 
influx into our communities, and it is killing some of our youngest and 
brightest citizens.
  Every American knows these deadly substances are flooding across our 
borders, brought to this country by criminals who directly benefit from 
the Biden-Harris administration's open-border policies. We also can't 
forget the other Americans who have been assaulted and murdered by 
illegal immigrants allowed to enter this country.
  Laken Riley is dead. Rachel Morin is dead. Others have lost their 
lives. Even children have been brutally assaulted. Why? So our border 
czar, Kamala Harris, could score political points with the radical 
leftwing of her party.
  Meanwhile, the State of New York is going bankrupt, spending billions 
of dollars to pay for housing, benefits, and food for this flood of 
illegal immigrants being released into the interior of this country.
  Again, this is a direct result of the open-border and sanctuary 
policies of the Democratic Party under Biden-Harris. Vice President 
Harris, the anointed border czar, wholeheartedly supports these 
policies.
  Time and again, she looks into the eyes of the American people who 
have seen loved ones die of fentanyl overdoses or have been the victims 
of criminals who were in this country illegally and lies to them. She 
lectures the American people about the root causes of illegal 
immigration and pretends that her policies had nothing to do with this 
historic crisis.
  We are not buying it, and the American people won't buy it in 
November.

                              {time}  1815

  Rather than visit our southern border, she led a junket to Central 
America to plead and to beg migrants to not come.
  It doesn't get more pathetic than begging other countries while 
paying lip service to Americans who are feeling the real pain of this 
crisis.
  Now, of course, this is entirely consistent with Vice President 
Harris' failed leadership in this administration. The condescension and 
virtue signaling may play well among the liberal, coastal elites who 
are now circling the wagons to ensure that she is slammed in there as 
the Democratic Presidential nominee in August, but the American people 
see her failures for what they are.
  People are suffering. People are dying from this crisis that Kamala 
Harris and President Biden have created. Kamala Harris deserves full 
condemnation, and I am glad to see the House take up this resolution.
  I am going to sit and wait for the condemnation of the little 
Democratic rally that was held for Kamala Harris over at Union Station 
today.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. McClintock). Members are reminded to 
refrain from engaging in personalities toward the Vice President.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I have an opiate problem in my district as well. This is a serious 
issue.
  The gentleman just got on the floor and ranted and raved about the 
fentanyl problem. While he was going on, I was reading this bill. The 
word ``fentanyl'' isn't even mentioned once in this, in this press 
release that is useless, that does nothing. It doesn't even mention the 
word ``fentanyl.'' What is going on over here?
  Again, the gentleman from Pennsylvania didn't answer my question. Of 
all the issues he raised here, where in this bill is there funding or 
solutions to deal with the fentanyl problem or to deal with securing 
the border or to provide more assistance for our border security?
  There is nothing in this. This is useless. It is a press release. 
This is what we are spending our time on. We could probably come 
together and maybe figure out some concrete things we can do to save 
lives, so people don't die from fentanyl. We could probably come 
together and find some commonality to figure out ways to strengthen our 
border.
  Let me just tell the gentleman one of the reasons why the border is 
the way it is and the immigration system is so messed up is because 
Congress has refused to act. Every time we try to get something to the 
floor, Republicans find a way to derail it.
  Give me a break. What a waste of time. This is pathetic.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from New Mexico 
(Ms. Leger Fernandez), a distinguished member of the Rules Committee.
  Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Mr. Speaker, we had to rush over last night to 
an emergency Rules Committee meeting to engage in this emergency 
resolution. This isn't an emergency. It is Republican panic.
  House Republicans are afraid of Vice President Harris. House 
Republicans are afraid of the energy and the excitement Vice President 
Harris inspires in Americans. She is a new generation of leader who is 
bringing us a vision of prosperity and opportunity for all Americans. 
They are afraid of that vision. They are afraid of the vision because 
she has been fighting for working families, for unions, and for women 
who want reproductive freedom.
  Vice President Harris' vision stands in stark contrast to the 
vengeful and hateful policies House Republicans and their nominee 
propose.
  Republicans and their nominee want to divide Americans while Vice 
President Harris wants to unite Americans. She wants to make sure she 
fights for reproductive freedom for women. She will fight to make sure 
that we have access to contraception, to IVF.

[[Page H4900]]

  What does the stark vision of the Republicans and their Project 2025 
propose? They propose a national abortion ban. They propose restricting 
women's ability to make their own choices. They propose controlling 
Americans and controlling women.
  Let's talk about immigration, since that is in the title of this. For 
decades, House Republicans have been the ones who blocked meaningful 
immigration and border bills. They refuse to participate in bipartisan 
solutions which we know are necessary for immigration and the border. 
Congress, we are the ones who must act.
  This year, Vice President Harris, along with President Biden, 
Democrats, and Senate Republicans, made a deal on immigration reform 
and border security. Then former President Trump asked them to kill the 
border deal, so House Republicans did. They declared it dead on arrival 
in the House.
  House Republicans don't have a real solution for the border because 
they don't actually want to fix it. If they did, what would they talk 
about? Everything they propose is dark, and it is always siding with 
the billionaires and the richest corporations instead of working 
families.
  I am excited by Vice President Harris, and it is telling how scared 
the Republicans are of our nominee for President.
  Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  To be clear about one thing: I am not afraid of Vice President Harris 
and neither are any of my colleagues. The people who should be most 
afraid of the Vice President are the American people.
  In going back to talk about the southern border, every single day in 
this country, roughly 300 Americans die of fentanyl overdoses. That 
would be the equivalent of a commercial jetliner going down every 
single day, once a day, for the last 4 years. That should scare the 
American people.
  Talking about more things, let's talk about crime under this 
administration. Americans continue to be the victims of violent crime 
under the Biden-Harris administration.
  According to the Major Cities Chiefs Association's 2022 crime report 
for urban areas across the country, homicides were up 13 percent since 
2020, rapes were up 23.56 percent since 2020, and aggravated assaults 
were up 33.89 percent since 2020.
  In 2022, at least nine cities, seven of which are Democrat run, saw 
record homicides. 2021 was the deadliest year in two decades for our 
law enforcement officers.
  Just listen to their party leaders, like Vice President Harris. She 
supports defunding the police. She believes it is ``wrongheaded'' and 
``outdated'' to think police officers make our communities safe.
  She wants to give voting rights to murderers, terrorists, rapists, 
and even inmates that are sitting on death row.
  Harris wants to abolish ICE which protects our communities from 
illegal aliens and the crimes they commit. She believes cash bail 
should be eliminated.
  The only time Vice President Harris has called for law enforcement to 
get involved was when Jussie Smollett said men with red MAGA hats were 
after him. Harris called it a modern-day lynching, and of course, this 
was an absolute hoax that was fabricated by the radical left with the 
help of no other than Vice President Harris.
  Americans should be afraid of the policies of the Vice President.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I can tell they are afraid of the Vice President because 
that is all they want to talk about. They are obsessed.
  Real time fact check, Mr. Speaker: This resolution does nothing to 
help any of the immigration problems that anyone on the other side of 
the aisle is talking about. There is no money, nothing, no laws, 
nothing. This is a press release.
  I want to correct the record on Vice President Harris because what is 
being repeated on this floor this afternoon is totally divorced from 
reality.
  Kamala Harris has won election after election by inspiring and 
uniting people. She earned her spot as Vice President the old-fashioned 
way, through hard work, political courage, and fighting for a better 
country.
  That is why Republicans are afraid of her. I get why they are afraid. 
I get the contrast isn't great for them right now.
  As a prosecutor, Kamala Harris took on perpetrators and put sexual 
abusers in jail, going after fraudsters who ripped off consumers and 
cheaters who broke the rules for their own personal gain.
  As Attorney General, Kamala Harris won a $20 billion settlement for 
people whose homes had been foreclosed on, putting $20,000 back into 
the pockets of victims of unethical foreclosures.
  Kamala Harris went after for-profit college scammers and forced them 
to return money to students and veterans that they stole from.
  Kamala Harris is fighting nonstop to protect the freedom of women to 
make their own choice about their own bodies while Republicans want to 
institute Project 2025 to ban abortion nationwide.
  Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote to pass the Inflation 
Reduction Act that is lowering drug costs for seniors and people with 
diabetes.
  That is exactly why my Republicans friends are terrified. They are 
attacking her in the most vicious, personal, and insulting fashion.
  Here are some of the quotes from some of our colleagues in Congress. 
These aren't rightwing media pundits. These are Members of Congress.
  ``One hundred percent she was a DEI hire.''
  ``I think she was a DEI hire. And I think that that's what we're 
seeing.''
  Another quote: ``Democrats . . . have to stick with her because of 
her ethnic background.''
  What is this, 1951? I knew they were trying to take us backward, but 
this is a new low. It is beyond offensive. We all know what this is. We 
all know what motivates these kinds of comments. I would say it on the 
floor, but I would probably have my words taken down again. Maybe they 
think it is easier to silence me than debate me. Maybe they are afraid 
of the truth.
  The truth is that this resolution reeks of desperation. The truth is 
they want to distract from the Vice President's incredible track record 
of success, including the fact that she secured $5.2 billion in 
private-sector commitments that will go toward addressing the 
underlying causes of migration that push people to our southern border 
in the first place.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
engaging in personalities toward the Vice President, including by 
making reference to other sources that would have been out of order if 
spoken in the Member's own words.

  Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume. Let me just get this straight. By the minority's logic, 
because Republicans are talking about Vice President Harris, we are 
somehow afraid of Vice President Harris. That is quite amazing because, 
for the last 8 years, they have been talking about President Trump. Let 
the American people decide who is afraid of who.
  To the attack that we have done nothing about the southern border, I 
can give the Democrats some ideas of what to do. How about they can 
start requesting that the administration go back and repeal the 94 
executive orders they issued when they took office which repealed 
President Trump's executive orders to secure the southern border. That 
would be a great start. You don't even need congressional action to 
undo those executive orders.
  I have not heard one of my Democratic colleagues call for any of 
those executive orders to be reversed.
  Here is another good idea: H.R. 2. This Chamber passed H.R. 2. It was 
the first border security bill that was passed in this Chamber, I 
believe, since the mid-nineties. That was a great bill. It ended catch 
and release. It reinstated remain in Mexico. It required that this 
administration finish the border wall. That would definitely halt 
illegal immigration.
  That is sitting over in the Senate. Maybe my friends from across the 
aisle here could ask the other Chamber to run that bill. Just a few 
ideas.
  I love it when I hear my colleagues talking about so-called bans. 
There are

[[Page H4901]]

a few bans that the Vice President is in favor of. Let's go through 
some of those.
  Under President Biden and Vice President Harris, the administration 
has supported bans on the following: gas-powered vehicles, gas stoves, 
firearms, and LNG exports.
  That is not enough for the Vice President. Harris wants to go even 
further than Biden. She supports bans on--this is a great list. It is 
like it is written by the Babylon Bee or something. She supports bans 
on red meat, plastic straws, private health insurance, fracking, and 
gas-powered schoolbuses.
  Before you know it, the average American is going to have to show 
their grocery list to Czar Harris before they go to the grocery store.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I guess the talking points from the NRCC went out, because I think 
the gentleman just read them to us.
  The gentleman talks about H.R. 2. It got 32 votes in the Senate. They 
killed it. It is dead.
  Then he talks about Homeland Security appropriation bills. It wasn't 
killed in the Senate. My Republican friends in the House killed their 
own bill in the House. It is dead. It didn't go anywhere. They didn't 
send it over to the Senate. Give me a break. Oh, my goodness.

                              {time}  1830

  What are we left with?
  A nonbinding resolution, a nonbinding resolution that does nothing. 
That is the big plan, a press release. Oh--well, I am not going to say 
that because I will get my words taken down.
  Anyway, Mr. Speaker, I want to urge that we defeat the previous 
question. If we do, I will offer an amendment to the rule to bring up 
H.R. 16, the American Dream and Promise Act of 2023.
  Mr. Speaker, the bipartisan American Dream and Promise Act provides a 
pathway to citizenship for people who only know America as their home. 
They contribute to society as taxpayers, small business owners, 
educators, and more. Dreamers were brought to the United States as 
children through no fault of their own. It is past time to open the 
doors and empower these talented individuals by granting them access to 
citizenship that they rightfully deserve.
  Mr. Speaker, let me be clear. There is a lot of work that needs to be 
done to fix our broken immigration system and secure our border. H.R. 
16 won't solve every issue, but it will address a longstanding one in 
our failing immigration system. It is the right thing to do, and it has 
the added benefit of being a bill that actually does something as 
compared to the resolution that we are dealing with right now.
  Instead of considering the do-nothing Republican nonbinding 
resolution before us, which is nothing but an RNC press release, and a 
bad one at that, let's consider actual legislation to start fixing 
these issues. Let's bring up H.R. 16.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my 
amendment into the Record, along with any extraneous material, 
immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Massachusetts?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. McGOVERN. To discuss our proposal, I yield 2 minutes to the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Garcia).
  Ms. GARCIA of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues 
to defeat the previous question and support the American Dream and 
Promise Act.
  Here we are again, wasting our time on yet another border resolution 
that does nothing, nada, to secure our border, reform our broken 
immigration system, or provide relief to the undocumented community.
  This time, however, it is a little different twist because they are 
targeting Vice President Kamala Harris for political gain. They are 
spewing lies that she is Biden's border czar. Trust me, if she had been 
given that position, it would be border czarina, because this is all a 
lie. It is false, period.
  She was tasked with leading diplomatic efforts in Guatemala, 
Honduras, and El Salvador to reduce migration from those countries. 
That is what she was tasked to do.
  Vice President Harris secured billions in private-sector investments 
to promote democracy and economic opportunity in those countries, and 
we have seen huge improvements. The numbers don't lie. In 2023, 
migrants from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador only made 22 percent 
of all border crossings, down from 41 percent in 2021. That is a huge 
improvement.
  However, Republicans don't care about facts. They would rather make 
up lies and get ready for the campaign rhetoric. They want to spew lies 
plain and simple for political gain. The reality is that if they were 
serious about border security and fixing our immigration system, then 
here is an idea, they would work with Democrats.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the 
gentlewoman.
  Ms. GARCIA of Texas. We have several solutions that we have put 
forward, including my bill, the American Dream and Promise Act, which 
would finally provide Dreamers, TPS recipients, and DED beneficiaries 
with a pathway to citizenship.
  Not only is my bill bipartisan and popular with my colleagues, 207 of 
whom were cosponsors, but it is popular with the American people. Poll 
after poll shows that upwards of 70 percent of Americans support 
permanent solutions for Dreamers because Americans support Dreamers and 
Dreamers support America. They know that their home is here. They rose 
to the challenge during the pandemic and served as doctors, nurses, and 
teachers. They are serving in our military and protecting our 
communities as law enforcement officers and firefighters.
  The American Dream and Promise Act is a real commonsense solution and 
not a rhetoric bill. It is not a MAGA waste of time. Enough of this 
``pendejada,'' ``foolishness,'' BS, and garbage. Let's move forward.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to defeat the previous question and 
instead support the American Dream and Promise Act, a real solution to 
provide relief to real people supported by Americans.
  Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, I am 
prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time I have 
remaining.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Massachusetts has 7 
minutes remaining. The gentleman from Pennsylvania has 10 minutes 
remaining.
  Mr. McGOVERN. I yield myself the remainder of my time, Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. Speaker, this is the sixth time House Republicans want us to vote 
on nearly the exact same do-nothing border resolution. The only 
difference is that this time they have slapped Vice President Harris' 
name on it because she is running against Donald Trump.
  Republicans are using official government resources to settle their 
political scores.
  Isn't it wrong to use taxpayer money for a campaign rally?
  Has anyone checked with the Federal Election Commission to see if 
this is even allowed?
  Mr. Speaker, they are using your taxpayer money to turn this place 
into a testing ground for RNC attack ads.
  My Republican colleagues should be embarrassed by this. All they talk 
about is their precious H.R. 2 and Homeland Security bills.
  News flash: H.R. 2 is hot garbage. It is a horrible bill that only 
earned 32 votes in the Senate. Even Republicans in the Senate knew it 
was a bad bill.
  They keep saying H.R. 2 is the solution, but they don't even have the 
votes on their side to get it to the President.
  Moreover, let's not get started on their Homeland Security funding 
bills. Those bills never even made it to the Senate because they didn't 
send them over.
  The solution is to pass a bipartisan bill, but they are worried if 
they pass one, it actually might work. It might secure the border, and 
then they won't have anything to campaign on.
  At the end of the day, this is all about the fact that they have no 
vision, only division; no ideas, only attack ads; no plans, only 
meaningless

[[Page H4902]]

resolutions that do nothing and are not worth the paper that they are 
printed on.
  Contrast that with Kamala Harris and Democrats in terms of what we 
are offering, and what we are offering are real solutions, real action, 
and a future that guarantees every American has an opportunity to 
succeed.
  We aren't afraid to work across the aisle to get things done for this 
country. Republicans offer nothing but anger, fear, and petty name-
calling.
  What a joke. Honestly, Mr. Speaker, if anyone thinks this resolution 
is a good idea, I think they might be in a cult. Get out of here with 
this nonsense. Go back to worshiping a convicted felon, and let us run 
this place like adults.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair would remind Members to refrain 
from engaging in personalities toward nominees for the Office of the 
President.
  Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I yield 
myself the balance of my time.
  Mr. Speaker, if you want to talk about division, I have got a whole 
list of divisive quotes from my friends across the aisle.
  It starts at the very top. Just days before what happened in 
Pennsylvania, President Biden said that we need to put a bull's-eye on 
President Trump. That was President Biden.
  Former Speaker Pelosi said: ``You have to be ready to take a punch. 
And therefore you have to be ready to throw a punch--for the 
children.''
  Senator Jon Tester: ``I don't think, even States where Donald Trump 
won big, that it does you any good running away from Donald Trump. I 
think you need to go back and punch him in the face.''
  That was a quote from Jon Tester.
  Here is Joe Biden again: ``I said if I were in high school, I would 
take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him.''
  Congresswoman Maxine Waters said this: ``And with this kind of 
inspiration, I will go and take out Trump tonight.''
  For the Vice President, she too is engaged in some divisive rhetoric. 
When asked in April 2018: If you had to be stuck in an elevator with 
either President Trump, Mike Pence, or Jeff Sessions, who would it be?
  Do you know how the Vice President responded?
  She said: Does one of us have to come out alive?
  Save me the rhetoric on divisiveness. I think the American people 
know where the divisive language is coming from.
  Let's go back to the Vice President and her role as border czar, at 
least that is what the media was calling her up until about 3 days ago.
  When Harris was tasked to be border czar, she promised to ``undo'' 
President Trump's border policies. Unfortunately for the American 
people, she made good on that promise.
  The Biden-Harris administration has referred to the influx of 
illegals as newcomers. That was their word, ``newcomers,'' not illegal 
immigrants.
  She has called for the decriminalization of illegal border crossings. 
Border czar Harris has even supported free healthcare and mass amnesty 
for illegal immigrants.
  The question is: Who pays the price for this incompetence?
  That answer is simple. That is the American people.
  The border crisis has cost the United States approximately $150.7 
billion every single year. That is over $1,100 per year per every 
American taxpayer.
  In southwestern Pennsylvania, my congressional district, we are one 
of the epicenters of the opioid crisis. Since the passage of H.R. 2, 
over 17,000 pounds of fentanyl had been seized at the southern border. 
To get your head around how much that actually is, Mr. Speaker, that is 
enough fentanyl to kill over 3.8 billion people.
  Nearly 15 Pennsylvanians die from drug overdoses every single day. As 
I said earlier in the debate, in the United States, roughly 300 
Americans every single day die of a fentanyl overdose.
  We have also heard horror stories like the murder of Laken Riley. 
Laken was a 22-year-old from Georgia who was killed by an illegal 
immigrant from Venezuela.
  Another American, Rachel Morin of Maryland, was a mother of five. She 
was raped and brutally murdered by an illegal from El Salvador.
  Her brother, Michael, stated after her death: ``Joe Biden and his 
designated border czar Kamala Harris opened our borders to him and 
others like him empowering them to victimize the innocent.'' Yet to 
this day, we have not heard from Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. They never 
apologized.
  These brutal deaths are a direct result of border czar Harris' 
inaction and failed policies. That is why this week House Republicans 
will rightfully condemn the Biden-Harris administration for their epic 
failure at the southern border. House Democrats, well, they will stand 
over there and continue to support and stand by the border czar, Vice 
President Harris, since they are complicit partners in this manmade 
disaster at our southern border. This disaster has impacted every 
community in our Nation.

  The material previously referred to by Mr. McGovern is as follows:

 An Amendment to H. Res. 1376 Offered by Mr. McGovern of Massachusetts

       At the end of the resolution, add the following:
       Sec. 2. Immediately upon adoption of this resolution, the 
     House shall proceed to the consideration in the House of the 
     bill (H.R. 16) to authorize the cancellation of removal and 
     adjustment of status of certain aliens, and for other 
     purposes. All points of order against consideration of the 
     bill are waived. The bill shall be considered as read. All 
     points of order against provisions in the bill are waived. 
     The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the 
     bill and on any amendment thereto, to final passage without 
     intervening motion except: (1) one hour of debate equally 
     divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority 
     member of the Committee on the Judiciary or their respective 
     designees; and (2) one motion to recommit.
       Sec. 3. Clause 1(c) of rule XIX shall not apply to the 
     consideration of H.R. 16.
  Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, 
and I move the previous question on the resolution.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on ordering the previous 
question.
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the ayes appeared to have it.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further 
proceedings on this question will be postponed.

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