Border Crisis is Top Issue

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. ROSE. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow, this Chamber will host President Biden as he delivers his third State of the Union Address.

He will likely tout his anti-energy agenda and out-of-control government spending that has resulted in crippling inflation not seen in decades, not seen since I was a senior in high school.

He will also attempt to blame congressional Republicans for his own failure to secure our borders, which, as most Americans know, is a crisis caused by this President.

In a rare recent visit to the border in Brownsville, Texas, President Biden expressed a dire need for Republicans to ``show a little spine'' and pass legislation.

Some of the folks living in that border town saw straight through the visit. One resident put it best. ``By a stroke of the pen,'' he said, ``you could stop this. You don't need Congress.'' Others called the visit too little, too late. I couldn't agree more.

This isn't just an important issue for the folks living along the border. In fact, this issue is the number one issue facing the country.

It is an issue in my home State, where 50 Tennessee National Guard soldiers volunteered recently to deploy to the southern border to help Border Patrol officials combat drug, crime, and human trafficking.

Tennessee is known as the Volunteer State because of its deep tradition of volunteer military service, a nickname that comes with a lot of pride. It is just unfortunate that 50 men and women are having to do what the President could do--but won't--and work to secure the border.

This is a self-inflicted crisis that has turned every State, including my own State of Tennessee, into a border State.

The President halted border wall construction and ended the successful remain in Mexico program. Since taking office, he has also admitted more than 1 million illegal immigrants into the country in a blatant abuse of the executive parole authority that Congress had granted to the executive branch.

Despite having no way of tracking many of these people, the Biden administration continues this historic catch and release scheme.

It sends a message to the rest of the world that our borders are open. None of these disastrous policies require an act of Congress, just as reversing them won't require new legislation.

There have been more than 8.7 million illegal border crossings nationwide under President Biden, more than 7.2 million crossings at the southern border alone. That is greater than the population of 36 States in our Nation.

More than 20,000 Communist Chinese nationals have illegally crossed the southern border just since October 1 of last year. They make up the fastest growing demographic entering our country illegally. You don't need a spy balloon if you can just walk right into the country.

For 35 months in a row under this administration, the number of illegal immigrants encountered at our southern border was higher than the worst month under the previous President, President Trump. We are on track to break more records this fiscal year, as CBP has already reported more than 1 million encounters.

I would argue we no longer have a border crisis in this country, Mr. Speaker, we have a border catastrophe.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source