[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 11973]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 BORDER WALL FUNDING IN MINIBUS PACKAGE

  (Mr. SOTO asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SOTO. Mr. Speaker, recall President Trump's promise on the 
campaign trail: we will build a wall and have Mexico pay for it.
  Not only is it costly and unnecessary, but it will do more to divide 
America than it will to keep us safe. First, taking the fact that 
Mexico is not paying for it, nor would anybody in their right mind 
think that Mexico was ever going to pay for it, now he is asking for 
$1.6 billion of Americans' hardworking taxpayers to pay for it.
  We already have 650 miles of border fencing, but representing the 
Sunshine State, with over 1,000 miles of coastline, this isn't going to 
make us safer. It is not going to help us at all. And then you look to 
how there are racial undertones to this.
  Notice how there is a focus on the Southern border, but not the 
Northern border?
  While I would not support that, we can't help but notice that this is 
focused on dividing America on racial lines, on making us less safe and 
on wasting taxpayer dollars.
  It is time to unite America. It is time to look forward to a safer 
America, and spend our money on the Coast Guard, on custom border 
control, and other works that will make us safer.

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