Steve Scalise
04/19/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 04/19/2024 16:14
Scalise: Step by Step, Biden Has Opened the Border
Scalise: Step by Step, Biden Has Opened the Border
April 19, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C.- Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) spoke on the House floor in support of H.R. 3602, the End the Border Catastrophe Act, andhighlighted House Republicans' efforts to pass legislation to secure the border that Senate Democrats refuse to take up. Leader Scalise slammed President Biden's dangerous border policies that he could undo with the stroke of his pen.
"I rise in strong support of this bill. But, Mr. Speaker, for years now, this House Republican majority - and before we were a majority - have been calling on President Biden to secure America's border. We have been trying to engage President Biden in a negotiation to fix the problem. We have put together legislation, and H.R. 2 has been mentioned by many, many people, the strongest border security bill that has passed Congress; and it has been over in the Senate since last year. And they continue to ignore it because they have chosen to ignore the problem.
"You saw it play out just days ago in the Senate when we sent over articles of impeachment for Secretary Mayorkas, who has failed miserably in his job of protecting America's homeland. That is his job: He is the Homeland Security Secretary. And you have seen him here on Capitol Hill testifying that our border is secure. It would be laughable if it wasn't so insulting to millions of Americans who know that's a lie. Our border is not secure. And in fact, since Joe Biden took office and took actions to open up our border, we have seen millions come across. Is it 8 million? Is it 10 million? The number we know is at least that high, if not higher.We know people on the terrorist watch list have come into our country because we've caught some of them, but we haven't caught all of them. We see thousands of Chinese nationals of military age coming into our country.
"Now, do you think they're coming in here to help be apart of the American dream or coming to undermine it? We know the answer to that question, too, which is why we continue to press our colleagues on the other aisle, our colleagues in the Senate, and, of course, Joe Biden in the White House to get serious about this issue. But they refuse to.We're not going to let this go; we're going to continue to bring this up. [Rep.] Ciscomani brought this bill forward, and we will continue this debate.
"And if President Biden wants to ignore it, he knows and the American people know that President Biden has the legal authority today through executive action to secure the border because they watched him use that same executive action to open up the border. He ended Remain in Mexico, which we restore in this bill. He mandated catch and release on our Border Patrol agents, who want to secure our border. You talk to them; we have embedded with them. So many of us have gone down the border and embedded with our Border Patrol agents. And, Mr. Speaker, they will tell you what's wrong, and the things that are needed to fix and secure the border are in this bill.But President Biden does not want to fix it because he knows he can fix it with a pen today. He's chosen not to because the far-left elements, the radical elements of his party, want an open border. And they're clear about it. And the President tries to act like he wants to secure the border, but then when it comes time to actually negotiate, he is nowhere to be found.
"The voters ultimately of this country are going to have a say in November. Do they want a secure border or not? Because you've got a clear choice. When Donald Trump was President, we had a secure border, and he took those steps. Mexico did not want Remain in Mexico to be the policy at the time. That was asylum, by the way, which is what we're really talking about. It was President Trump who went back to Mexico and said, either you're going to agree to this policy - it's a negotiation between two countries - or there's going to be consequences, and he laid out those consequences. Well, lo and behold, Mexico saw the light. Mexico recognized it made a lot more sense to agree to that policy with President Trump than to suffer the consequences. And so we got Remain in Mexico and it started to solve the problem. And then he ended catch and release. He was building a wall; we funded this when we were the Republican majority working with President Trump, funded construction of the wall, and hundreds of miles of wall were being built. Joe Biden comes into office and on day one, he mandated the end, the halt of that construction of that wall. The wall was working. And Joe Biden knows it. And he ended it because he wanted the border open.
"And so step by step, action by action, Joe Biden's opened the border. He refuses to negotiate with us on fixing the problem, but we're not going to walk away from this. We're going to continue to force this issue, to bring votes to the floor, to press the Senate to take this up. But at the end of the day, if Joe Biden still wants to continue to block this, he still wants to continue to keep the border open, the voters are going to have the ultimate say in November.And I don't think he's going to like the answer. He could do something about it right now, and he refuses to. So ultimately, the people of this country will have a say if Joe Biden won't work with us, but we're going to continue to push it. I urge adoption of this piece of legislation that's so important to our national security."
Click hereor the image above to view Leader Scalise's full remarks.
Leader Scalise's remarks:"I rise in strong support of this bill. But, Mr. Speaker, for years now, this House Republican majority - and before we were a majority - have been calling on President Biden to secure America's border. We have been trying to engage President Biden in a negotiation to fix the problem. We have put together legislation, and H.R. 2 has been mentioned by many, many people, the strongest border security bill that has passed Congress; and it has been over in the Senate since last year. And they continue to ignore it because they have chosen to ignore the problem.
"You saw it play out just days ago in the Senate when we sent over articles of impeachment for Secretary Mayorkas, who has failed miserably in his job of protecting America's homeland. That is his job: He is the Homeland Security Secretary. And you have seen him here on Capitol Hill testifying that our border is secure. It would be laughable if it wasn't so insulting to millions of Americans who know that's a lie. Our border is not secure. And in fact, since Joe Biden took office and took actions to open up our border, we have seen millions come across. Is it 8 million? Is it 10 million? The number we know is at least that high, if not higher.We know people on the terrorist watch list have come into our country because we've caught some of them, but we haven't caught all of them. We see thousands of Chinese nationals of military age coming into our country.
"Now, do you think they're coming in here to help be apart of the American dream or coming to undermine it? We know the answer to that question, too, which is why we continue to press our colleagues on the other aisle, our colleagues in the Senate, and, of course, Joe Biden in the White House to get serious about this issue. But they refuse to.We're not going to let this go; we're going to continue to bring this up. [Rep.] Ciscomani brought this bill forward, and we will continue this debate.
"And if President Biden wants to ignore it, he knows and the American people know that President Biden has the legal authority today through executive action to secure the border because they watched him use that same executive action to open up the border. He ended Remain in Mexico, which we restore in this bill. He mandated catch and release on our Border Patrol agents, who want to secure our border. You talk to them; we have embedded with them. So many of us have gone down the border and embedded with our Border Patrol agents. And, Mr. Speaker, they will tell you what's wrong, and the things that are needed to fix and secure the border are in this bill.But President Biden does not want to fix it because he knows he can fix it with a pen today. He's chosen not to because the far-left elements, the radical elements of his party, want an open border. And they're clear about it. And the President tries to act like he wants to secure the border, but then when it comes time to actually negotiate, he is nowhere to be found.
"The voters ultimately of this country are going to have a say in November. Do they want a secure border or not? Because you've got a clear choice. When Donald Trump was President, we had a secure border, and he took those steps. Mexico did not want Remain in Mexico to be the policy at the time. That was asylum, by the way, which is what we're really talking about. It was President Trump who went back to Mexico and said, either you're going to agree to this policy - it's a negotiation between two countries - or there's going to be consequences, and he laid out those consequences. Well, lo and behold, Mexico saw the light. Mexico recognized it made a lot more sense to agree to that policy with President Trump than to suffer the consequences. And so we got Remain in Mexico and it started to solve the problem. And then he ended catch and release. He was building a wall; we funded this when we were the Republican majority working with President Trump, funded construction of the wall, and hundreds of miles of wall were being built. Joe Biden comes into office and on day one, he mandated the end, the halt of that construction of that wall. The wall was working. And Joe Biden knows it. And he ended it because he wanted the border open.
"And so step by step, action by action, Joe Biden's opened the border. He refuses to negotiate with us on fixing the problem, but we're not going to walk away from this. We're going to continue to force this issue, to bring votes to the floor, to press the Senate to take this up. But at the end of the day, if Joe Biden still wants to continue to block this, he still wants to continue to keep the border open, the voters are going to have the ultimate say in November.And I don't think he's going to like the answer. He could do something about it right now, and he refuses to. So ultimately, the people of this country will have a say if Joe Biden won't work with us, but we're going to continue to push it. I urge adoption of this piece of legislation that's so important to our national security."
Issues:National Security