[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 147 (Tuesday, September 9, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H4158-H4163]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PEOPLE ARE SICK AND TIRED
(Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Mr. Roy of
Texas was recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority
leader.)
Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity, as always, to
be here in the House Chamber and try to be a voice for the people
across this country.
The people that I represent, of course, as does the Speaker and my
colleagues, we each represent three-quarters of a million people, give
or take, but we also try to be a voice for everybody. We try to be a
voice for the people who don't have a voice.
The people that I represent and the people across this country that I
talk to are sick and tired. They are sick and tired of being put in
danger because radical, progressive Democrats, radical progressive
politicians, radical progressive judges, radical progressive district
attorneys, radical progressive NGOs, George Soros, the people funding
all of these entities are pushing criminals onto the streets of our
country and causing harm to Americans, Americans who have been here for
generations or Americans who came here seeking refugee from, for
example, Ukraine.
How many of my colleagues come to the floor of the House wearing a
blue and yellow ribbon or a blue and yellow pin? They wear it for show,
and they wear it to pat themselves on the back. They wear it to seem
like they are the ones with a heart when other people question whether
we should fund endless war. They wear it to say that they care.
[[Page H4159]]
But where were they when Iryna Zartuska was being brutally stabbed in
public transit in North Carolina? Where is the media who were outraged
when Daniel Penny, a marine, stopped a violent offender on a New York
subway and then was the one being charged and prosecuted for a crime?
What if Iryna Zartuska had Daniel Penny sitting next to her so that
she wouldn't have lost her life? As a refugee from Ukraine, she was
coming to supposedly the freest and strongest and greatest country on
Earth. She was brutally murdered because feel-good radical liberals
with their jailbreak, let-all-the-criminals-out, open borders, take
money from George Soros, DAs, and judges put these criminals on the
streets. You have a guy who was a 14-time offender, 14-time offender
sitting behind this beautiful girl, and he just stabs her to death on a
train car.
{time} 1630
Where is all the wailing and the gnashing of teeth from my colleagues
on the other side of the aisle? Where are their blue and yellow ribbons
today?
All the sanctimonious preaching sure is silent because they can't
bear to acknowledge that if you don't enforce the law, if you invite
criminals from around the world into our country with open borders, if
you let criminals on our streets with foolish policies by radical
judges and district attorneys, then, as my friend from Louisiana knows
as a former law enforcement officer, our streets are no longer safe and
the American Dream is no longer able to be achieved. The freedom we are
supposed to enjoy is not possible without the security you are supposed
to have under the rule of law.
We used a lot of big words from the Declaration of Independence all
the way through today. We talk about a lot of great words: ``equal
justice under the law,'' ``liberty,'' ``rights,'' ``freedom,'' but if
you don't have the rule of law, none of it matters.
The reason people come to the United States, the reason they flock to
our country from around the world, is because of the rule of law.
Enforcing our constitutional rights, given to us by God, recognized by
our Founders, defended with the blood of patriots, but enforced under
the law.
They come here knowing they can invest their capital, build a
business, and not have it taken away by the State. They know that they
can walk the streets freely, or they think that they can walk the
streets freely, and not be assaulted. They believe that they can raise
a family, grow and develop a community, and live the American Dream
that they have seen play out.
They want to come here, but then when people with their fake ribbons
and their feel-good propaganda let criminals on the streets, ignore the
rule of law, and walk away from the men and women in blue as they did
in the summer of 2020 when our cities were burning and our law
enforcement were being attacked, when they defunded the police in
Austin, Texas, as the radical city council did there, then real people
suffer. Americans get hurt, and the American Dream dies.
The suspect that I talked about with the brutal stabbing in North
Carolina was 34 years old with a history of mental illness and a long
rap sheet: multiple convictions for armed robbery, felony larceny,
breaking and entering; more than 5 years in prison; and 14 criminal
cases.
His own family had warned of his history of schizophrenia. His own
sister said that ``he didn't seem like himself,'' when he was released
from prison. He assaulted his sister, and now that guy is roaming the
public.
His release from this incident was conditioned on a written promise
that he would appear for his next hearing, only for him to be charged
with murdering this young woman.
Why would North Carolina officeholders, politicians, and judges not
confine or institutionalize this young man? Because a radical ideology
has taken root, particularly in my colleagues on the other side of the
aisle, but my colleagues on this side of the aisle are not immune to
the belief that you can put criminals on the street and not undermine
the American Dream.
The so-called progressive prosecutor movement advocates for less
incarceration and less policing: decarceration, procriminal policies
that undermine public safety.
On January 22, 2025, San Antonio Police Department officers responded
to calls at a San Antonio apartment complex reporting a suicidal
individual who was armed and firing his weapon. When officers arrived,
the suspect, Brandon Scott Poulos, fired upon the officers, striking
one of them in the leg. Poulos wound up barricading himself in an
hours-long standoff and shot an additional six officers before San
Antonio PD neutralized the situation. Thankfully, all seven officers
survived.
He was a 46-year-old with a history of erratic behavior. He was
charged with DWI and assault. A few days before the shooting, he had
been arrested for two charges of injury to an elderly person; one
charge of assault, family violence causing bodily injury; and one
charge of driving while intoxicated.
The Bexar County Magistrate's Office--Bexar County is where San
Antonio is--issued a protective order against Poulos with instructions
not to contact the family members. Three days later and less than 24
hours before the January 22 shooting of seven San Antonio cops, Poulos
violated his protective order by visiting a prohibited residence and
threatening to kill himself and to shoot at any officer.
The Bexar County D.A. in San Antonio, led by a progressive
prosecutor, has imposed criminal leniency initiatives that have not
only put law-abiding Americans in danger but also police officers, too.
The fact is, we are letting the inmates not just run the asylum, but
letting the inmates run our communities. Then, under the Biden
administration, we are inviting other countries to dump their prisons
out into our communities. The radical progressives who allowed that to
happen, supported it, and encouraged it are now attacking President
Trump for daring to undo the damage, reverse the open borders and
secure them, and then try to remove the dangerous criminals who are
walking the streets of the United States because of the radical
progressives and their open-border policies.
I know my friend from Louisiana has a lifetime of service, not just
as a Congressman, but also in law enforcement. I wonder if my brother
from Louisiana would like to expand upon my thesis that the rule of law
is the central element of a strong and prosperous United States and
that when our radical progressive friends undermine it by releasing
criminals, leaving our borders open, refusing to enforce the law, and
handing down light sentences, it endangers our people and undermines
the very American Dream that people seek to achieve when they come to
our land.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Higgins),
my friend.
Mr. HIGGINS of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Roy), my colleague and friend, for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I would prefer not to have to expound upon this topic.
What I would prefer is that my colleagues in this body, on both sides
of the aisle, embrace the very somber responsibility of encouraging and
supporting the laws of our land.
{time} 1640
Yet, we find ourselves in a position as conservatives where our
warnings of the past echo upon a nearly empty Chamber as we discuss the
horrors of the day and the crimes that have been committed upon the
citizens we are sworn to serve that need not have been committed. This
is because of the culture that we have allowed to spread across our
country, as my friend has spoken on, that we have allowed elected
officials to embrace, that culture that has woven its way into the
fabric of our country that pushes back against the prevention of crime
and the enforcement of law, and sells this idea that we are somehow a
less compassionate nation if we do not continually release career
criminals upon the streets. There is this notion that we can somehow
enforce criminal law with social vagaries; this idea that somehow if we
will just be very, very nice to the criminal element, they will just
stop committing crimes upon the law-abiding of our country.
We have to stand against the existence of that concept, certainly in
this body that is responsible for being the voice of we the people. In
cases where horrors are forced upon our innocent
[[Page H4160]]
citizens by career criminals that should have well been
institutionalized or imprisoned for many, many years, we have a
responsibility to speak out.
I would say that it is far from compassionate, as a citizenry, to
continue to release career criminals. I would offer to yourself and the
country, Mr. Speaker, for your consideration, maybe my fellow citizens
have to realize that the best shot that some of these guys that are in
the game on the criminal side of this thing, the best shot they have at
rehabilitation is jail, the very best shot.
I have seen it again and again and again in my career. I have had
criminals that I have taken off the street, that have lived a life just
immersed in drugs and crime and alcohol and violence. And maybe for the
first time in their life they were truly treated with the respect of
man to man is when I arrested them and took them off the street and
walked them through the booking process. I told them then that they
have a potential for a better life and a better day, but their path to
a brighter future comes through my jail. I advised them to take that
time in that jail to reflect upon their life and the potential that
they have to turn themselves around.
Years later, Mr. Speaker, I have had these same guys come to me, who
are now free, and say thank you. Thank you for talking to me the way
you did and handling me the way you did and making me realize that my
path to a better life began through jail.
The fact that this horrible man should brutally stab this innocent
woman, that is part of the national narrative right now. The fact that
we are dealing with that horror brings us to hold accountable every
judge that let him go and every prosecutor that refused to force
charges upon that man, every elected official and politician that stood
for cashless bail. Every member of our society that stood on the wrong
side of this thing should take a deep look in the mirror.
I say to my friend, Mr. Roy, who is a gentleman who supports the
enforcement of law, he is a good and compassionate man, a father and
husband, he is determined to serve his country, and asking our fellow
man, Mr. Speaker, to hear this message: enforce existing laws,
prosecute violent criminals, incarcerate those who are convicted, and
maintain that incarceration until they are reformed or their sentence
is complete.
We say this not just for ourselves, but for the murdered, for the
lost, for the forgotten, for the unseen victims of crime across our
country.
Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I would like to see if my friend from Louisiana
can stick around a little bit longer.
Mr. HIGGINS of Louisiana. Yes, sir.
Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my friend from Louisiana because
of his long history of distinguished service, and he knows what he is
talking about.
I know that the gentleman from Louisiana came to my home State of
Texas when the people that I represent were ravaged by the floods that
affected our community in Kerrville, Texas, the gentleman dropped what
he was doing to come up and help when we were in the search and in the
rescue.
I just want to say to the gentleman, as a representative of the
thousands of people who came to our State to try to help at a time when
our people were hurting, but also people around the Nation were
affected because of what happened to the camps--that I am proud to
represent and that we will rebuild and that we will have going forward
to have these wonderful children be able to learn the gospel and spread
the gospel and become lights into the world.
I know that my friend from Louisiana would allow us to indulge a
favor to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter) to have a 1-minute
remark about something that is important to him, but I wanted to take a
moment to share my prayerful solidarity with my brother from Georgia
because he had a family member, a young girl who was unfortunately lost
in that terrible flood, and I bring that up because we were all
affected by it. We had so many loved ones who were impacted, but the
faith of that community and the faith of the people in this Nation and
the faith of the people in Texas who have come together under the cross
that stands up on that hill in Kerrville and the people who have
generously contributed now $150 million and counting that are going in
to help those people, and the first responders who showed up on the
scene and the people like my friend and the former sheriff, my buddy
from Louisiana, who dropped everything to come up represents all that
is good and great about this great Nation, who show up to help each
other when we need to.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr.
Carter) for a different topic, but I wanted to tell him how much my
family has been praying for him and all the families affected.
Honoring Judith Jurgensen Melroy
Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for
yielding, and I thank him for his kind comments.
I did have two granddaughters in Texas, and they are okay, but they
did lose their cousin, Janie Hunt, 9 years old. What a tragedy. I thank
both of these gentlemen for their work during that time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of Judy
Jurgensen Melroy.
A native of Savannah, Georgia, Mrs. Melroy lived a life defined by
faith, service, and love for others. Her passion for learning led her
to become a teacher, where she inspired countless young people and
passed on her joy for education to future generations.
At home, she poured her heart into raising her sons, who remember her
not only for her guidance but also for her playful spirit, often
joining them in the yard. Through her devotion, each pursued the
highest levels of education, a reflection of the values she instilled.
Beyond her family and classroom, Mrs. Melroy was known throughout her
community as a nurturer, always ready to offer comfort, encouragement,
and care. Her faith was central to her life, and her talents as a
painter and singer brought joy to all who knew her.
To her husband, Donald, to her sons, Michael, Chris, and Joel, today
we celebrate her extraordinary legacy of love, service, and light.
{time} 1650
Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia.
Mr. Speaker, since we are talking about the rule of law, I will not
regale you with stories of my misspent youth on St. Patrick's Day in
his fair city of Savannah.
I will say that earlier my friend from Louisiana was talking about
the importance of the rule of law. We were talking about the context of
criminals being let out prematurely, not giving them the ability to
actually come to a place where they can again interact with society. We
can talk about the mix with mind-altering drugs. We can talk about the
misdiagnoses. We can talk about all of the things that we can and
should do better. I know that my friend from Louisiana, a devout
Catholic, a devout believer in the healing power and the grace of our
Saviour, I know that he, like I, believe in the power of forgiveness
and being able to work to rehabilitate and that we are called to do
that. However, that is not an excuse for irresponsibly,
programmatically, and politically putting individuals on the street who
have no business being there.
In that same vein, I know that my friend from Louisiana is a staunch
believer in a secure border, as most Americans are. I want to make a
couple of points and see what the gentleman thinks. So when you look at
the damage that was being done by the previous administration, not as
most people think, by just ignoring the border and letting people get
in, but rather encouraging and purposefully pulling people into the
United States by virtue of the misapplication, misinterpretation, and
straight-out disregard of the law to abuse our compassionate parole and
asylum policies meant and reserved for those in dire need of protection
from political persecution and other areas defined in the law for
special purposes. For instance, you might be granted parole to care for
a sick loved one legally in the United States. You might be granted
some specific purpose for that one individual because we are a
compassionate Nation.
Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, led by the previous
President, led by the previous Secretary, led by the previous Vice
President, purposely bastardized the law for political purposes,
endangering children who were
[[Page H4161]]
raped on the journey, using this human chattel callously for political
purposes, flooding our communities with criminals from other countries.
Now, the President of the United States who ran on reversing that is
doing so, and President Trump, Steve Miller, Tom Homan, Secretary Noem,
the brave men and women of ICE, the brave men and women of Border
Patrol, all of our law enforcement should be roundly commended for
doing their job. I can tell you the relief of those great men and women
to have a President and a Secretary that has their back and that
believes in them and has allowed them to carry out their mission under
the law, rather than accusing them of whipping someone they fully knew
did not happen.
It is a new day in America where the flow across the border is
statistically zero, as it should be, compared to the millions that
flowed in for 4 years under Joe Biden. The Trump administration has, to
the best of my understanding, arrested some 359,000 individuals for
removal in the first 7 months of this administration, 70 percent of
whom had pending criminal charges or convictions contrary to the
allegations of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle.
Why are our colleagues on the other side of the aisle protesting the
removal of murderers, sex offenders, drug traffickers, child abusers,
gun criminals, gang members threatening our communities, killing our
citizens like Jocelyn Nungaray or Rachel Moran, Laken Riley?
For the other 30 percent, they are illegal aliens who broke our
immigration laws. They literally broke our laws.
I know that the gentleman from Louisiana feels so strongly that we
should back up our law enforcement community that he raised a
privileged matter on the floor of the House involving one of our
colleagues on the other side of the aisle who has been indicted for
interfering with law enforcement, and not just interfering with law
enforcement, interfering with ICE, the law enforcement personnel which
she is charged with overseeing in her service on the Committee on
Homeland Security.
I know the gentleman rightfully brought that matter before the House.
My colleagues will continue to address that matter in the future.
I wonder if the gentleman could speak to the importance--to this body
and our leaders of this country, the 435 people in this Chamber, the
100 on the other side of the building, the President, and the people
who report to him, the judges in the Supreme Court and throughout our
courts in the country--the importance of enforcing the law, of standing
alongside, not blindly, but standing alongside our law enforcement
community to protect the rule of law that he so artfully described with
respect to our jails and the enforcement of laws in our communities,
but also to enforce our border in concert with local law enforcement
and how important it is that we stand alongside them, that we stand up
and hold ourselves accountable for doing that work and the proper
oversight and the proper leadership to secure our Nation.
I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Higgins), my good
friend.
Mr. HIGGINS of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from
Texas for yielding me additional time to address these issues.
Our sovereign border, Mr. Speaker, our southern border is 1,954 miles
long. I have scouted every mile by airplane, helicopter, four-wheel
drive vehicle, on horseback, and on foot. I have scouted every mile.
That 1,954 miles of southern border on the American side of our
border, the northern side of that border, is patrolled by some of the
finest law enforcement professionals that the world has ever known. It
is absolutely within the reach of those law enforcement professionals
to effectively enforce our laws on American territory and American soil
to the north of that 1,954-mile sovereign border.
{time} 1700
Mr. Speaker, the southern side of that sovereign border is 100
percent controlled by criminal cartels.
Mr. Speaker, if we have an American Government executive authority
that determines by its policy it is not going to enforce the law with a
certain vigor that is required, when on the other side of the sovereign
border, there very well-funded, well-armed, and organized criminal
cartels, we are effectively partnering with those cartels.
There is a partnership in whatever criminal activity they are engaged
in. At our southern border, the criminal cartel traffic human beings
and drugs into our country. In 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, the
executive branch of our government--the prior President and Secretary
of Homeland Security--effectively partnered with the criminal cartels
to traffic human beings and drugs into the heart of our country.
The impact that we had to bear was immeasurable. It delivered
generational trauma into our country. That was a policy decision and a
series of expansion of that policy over the course of 4 years that led
to millions upon millions upon millions of illegals coming into our
country.
In many cases, they themselves were victims of the lies that the
former executive branch put forth into the entire cartel pipeline, deep
into South American and through Central American. Rather than a law
enforcement professional body, they drew these illegals into our
country where they were waived in by a Federal law enforcement body
transformed into a reception and processing force. The negative impact
was 100 percent the result of policy.
Our colleagues across the aisle told us for years, Mr. Speaker: We
need more money. Why don't Republicans give more money to the Biden
administration? Well, Congress should pass more laws.
We said for those years: More laws are not required. Enforcement of
existing law and the will to do so is what is required. More money is
not required.
It is the same 1,954 miles of border, the same personnel, the same
roads, the same physical barriers, the same communications systems, and
the same surveillance systems. In 2 weeks under the new administration,
we went from 8,000 to 10,000 illegal crossings a day to almost zero
because of a change in policy.
The guilt and the deep accountability of every injury and every dead
American, every injured family, that responsibility lies with those who
develop the policy that encouraged the illegal trafficking of human
beings and drugs into our country.
Over 200,000 Americans are now dead. They can't vote for either
party. They are dead from drugs trafficked into our country in those 4
years. They are dead from fentanyl poisoning.
There are 435 of us here and 100 Members of our colleagues across
campus in the Senate. There are 535 children of God, Democrat or
Republican, by God, who are absolutely responsible for the decisions
and laws that come out of the American Congress.
Article I gives us the authority and, therefore, the responsibility
to be the voice of we the people. For 4 years, that voice cried out to
be heard. Enforce the law. Protect the citizens. Restore the
sovereignty of our border. Now, thank God, we have.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy) for allowing
me to address these concerns.
Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from (Louisiana) Mr. Higgins.
Mr. Speaker, I want to put a name and a face on the environment that
was created by our colleagues and by the previous administration in
endangering people.
We talk about: Say his name. Say the name of Jimmy Friesenhahn. In
San Antonio, a father of a young daughter, a veteran of the Marine
Corps, Jimmy fell victim to the pro-criminal policies and the open
border that my friend from Louisiana just described.
On May 4, 2025, a mere 4 months ago, he was working as a security
guard at a restaurant on the west side of San Antonio. The perpetrator,
Wilmer Vladimir Ruiz-Ortega, attempted to enter the bar. He was stopped
by Jimmy to be searched for contraband.
Jimmy identified a handgun. It led to a struggle, which resulted in
the suspect gaining control of it, firing it, and striking Jimmy at
least once. Jimmy medically died on the scene but was revived. It
struck him in the neck, leaving him with a spinal injury, along with a
ruptured esophagus and vocal cords.
He was in the ICU at San Antonio Military Medical Center with life-
[[Page H4162]]
threatening injuries for months. Doctors say he will never fully
recover.
The suspect is a 29-year-old illegal alien who entered the United
States as a got-away. He was arrested in San Antonio and charged with a
DWI in 2020. He was let go on a personal reconnaissance bond but failed
to show up.
The Bexar County DA downgraded the DWI. He pled guilty to obstructing
a passageway, but he violated the probation. He got arrested again. He
was let go after posting a bond of $1,500. He failed to show up.
He was arrested a fourth time in November of 2024. He was sentenced
to time served. He assaulted a girlfriend and fled the scene. After
shooting Jimmy, then the Bexar County DA only pursued aggravated
assault charges and set his bond at $200,000. He is not in jail. He was
granted house arrest.
Jimmy was a father and a veteran. His brother said Jimmy always put
himself before others. Why do the people entrusted with securing our
communities and enforcing the law not put Jimmy before the illegal
alien who shouldn't have been here, should have been removed, and
shouldn't have been let out five times to carry out and perpetrate this
kind of crime?
The American people are asking: What happened? What happened to our
country?
{time} 1710
As far as a refugee from Ukraine, do you remember when our colleagues
waved all the Ukrainian flags on the House floor?
Mr. HIGGINS of Louisiana. Where are they now?
Mr. ROY. Where were they today, Mr. Speaker? Were they waving the
Ukrainian flag to honor that young girl who was brutally murdered by a
criminal released by a radical progressive funded by radical
progressives?
They are nowhere to be found. They are MIA.
The legacy media, also run by radical progressives, can't even bring
it up. They can't even put it on the television. They don't dare to
talk about it because it doesn't fit the narrative.
The American people are sick of having their way of life that their
forefathers fought, bled, and died for, and that their brothers,
sisters, moms, and dads worked to build for them and to pass down to
their kids, ripped to shreds by people who don't give a rip about the
rule of law, the Constitution, or our way of life as God-fearing
Americans who say that we put our trust in God right above the flag
that those brave men and women wore into combat so that we could be
here and live supposedly free.
We are unable to live free because we are not secure. We are not
secure because radical politicians, judges, and NGOs are working
furiously for political gain and political purposes to advance a
radical Marxist ideology to undermine our security.
It is a war on our way of life. It is a war on Western civilization
itself. It is a war on the Constitution and the rule of law.
Every day that goes by is another day in which the very things that
built this country are under assault, including, I might add, and in no
doubt controversially, our belief in the Almighty God and His Son
punished for our transgressions on the cross and our collective belief
in Him as a nation that built this country.
This country and too many of its citizens have turned their backs on
that truth.
The fact is, and the last point I will make, is that those radical
progressives with their remaking of America with wide-open borders--and
open borders include unfettered visas from all corners of the world--is
purposely driven for economic, political, and other purposes, but
usually involving the buck and power.
There are people who are advancing sharia law and advancing an
Islamist political worldview directly and purposely in conflict with
our Western values and our Constitution. It is a declaration of war on
our way of life.
In Houston, just this weekend, an imam affiliated with the Nation of
Islam was going around claiming to be patrolling Muslim-owned shops,
telling them to stop selling alcohol and lottery tickets because they
violate Islamic law. As communities in Texas are built upon large
pieces of land, hundreds of acres, they are building up Muslim-only
cities. This is purposeful.
We had Nigel Farage and others testifying in the Judiciary Committee
this past week.
I asked Mr. Farage if the advance of Islam and the importation of
sharia law are consistent with Western civilization, the Western
civilization responsible for providing more peace, more prosperity,
better living conditions, and more freedom for more people than the
world has ever seen. His answer was, of course, no, it is not.
Our friends across the pond can barely find themselves able to defend
what little free speech remains on their island. A comic, a comedian,
came to the United States and made a joke about transgenderism. I don't
even know what the joke was. He flies home to the U.K. and is arrested
for hate speech even as the Parliament is advancing an Islamophobia
bill, to which I ask: Who is going to win that war? Who is going to win
that fight? We either believe and uphold the values of Western
civilization or we don't.
Mr. Speaker, you can believe what you want. You can believe in God or
not. You can go to church or not. What you cannot do is advance a
radical ideology deeply at odds, directly in conflict, and purely
designed to undermine the very values that have built this Nation and
the advance of freedom around the world because, at our core, our
values are built on our faith.
This Nation is more likely to crumble under its own weight, its own
errors, than it is by invasion unless we meet the moment, unless we
stand up, and unless we say never again.
Never again will we allow the power of government to be rained down
upon the American people with mandates of masks and vaccines in the
name of fear and in the name of healthcare.
Never again will we allow open borders to trample our community,
endanger our citizens, and filter dangerous narcotics into our
communities.
Never again will we allow the Chinese Communist Party to buy up our
lands, our meatpacking facilities, and our critical medical production
companies.
Never again will we allow our communities to get overrun with forced
Marxist, DEI, and critical race theory ideology that undermines the
very fabric of our community.
Never again will we allow the lawless and dangerous criminals to be
on the streets because a faraway judge or bureaucrat getting paid off
by an NGO says so.
Never again. Never again.
This moment of reprieve and this moment of common sense in which
President Trump is restoring a modicum of what we need to restore the
rule of law and secure borders and enforcement of the law and removal
of criminals is meeting resistance at every turn. Even this moment of
reprieve in which the President, President Trump, is restoring common
sense by eliminating DEI, CRT, and all this stuff in our agencies and
our Pentagon, even this moment of reprieve is just that, a moment of
reprieve from the march of the Marxist, tyrannical ideology that is
deeply at odds with our founding principles and who we are as a Judeo-
Christian nation and as people who believe in something bigger and
better for our kids and grandkids that is rooted in the sacrifice of
the millions who came before us.
{time} 1720
This reprieve must be met with the energy and the resolve of those
who died before us: the men of the Alamo, the men who stormed the
beaches of Normandy, the men on the fields of Lexington and Concord,
the men and women who have answered the call to defeat terror, the men
and women in blue who actually stand on that thin blue line even when
they are abandoned.
All of those who have answered the call deserve Members of this body,
Members of the Senate, elected leaders across the country to risk even
an ounce of what those men and women are willing to risk. They must
risk the election certificate upon which they hold like a death grip.
I say to my colleagues: Do something bigger and better. Take this
moment of reprieve and say never again. Never again will we endanger
our citizens; never again with open borders; never again with criminals
on our streets; never again with drugs; never again
[[Page H4163]]
with tyrannical mandates, vaccines stuck in the arm; never again with
radical ideology and transgender ideology politically motivated harming
our young women, undermining their advancement; never again.
Never again do we yield to the corporatists who gobble up our small
businesses and undermine our way of life. Never again will we yield to
ideology in the name of political expediency, but rather, stand up and
defend this the greatest country that the world has ever known without
which people will be relegated to a world without the American Dream
backed by the security and safety of the people willing to lay it all
on the line to defend it.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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