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[Page H4222]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
OPPOSING AMNESTY FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Arrington) for 5 minutes.
Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, I find it ironic and hypocritical to hear
my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who speak from this august
Chamber about the children and the families at the border when, today,
we are going to vote on legislation that doesn't lift a finger to help
those children and those families. It doesn't give a dime to our
President and make the investment in infrastructure and healthcare and
the things that this President has asked for repeatedly to help those
children.
Instead, we hear demagoguery after demagoguery, and it is all talk;
it is no action. And the action we need is not amnesty for people who
are in this country illegally. What we need is real solutions to
putting the American citizens first, their security and well-being
first.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the legislation the
Democrats are bringing to the floor today that will grant amnesty to
millions of illegal immigrants, incentivizing even more people to come
to this country illegally and which would do nothing to combat the
national security and humanitarian crisis at the southern border that
continues to grow worse every day.
The title of the bill is the ``American Dream and Promise Act''--the
``American Dream and Promise Act.'' This may be a dream for those who
get placed in front of the line in front of millions of people who
respect our immigration laws; it may be a dream for folks who get
blanket immigration, a pass and citizenship to this great country, who
have committed violent acts, criminal acts, folks who are convicted of
DUIs, gang members; but it is not the dream of the American citizen. In
fact, it is a nightmare what is happening on the border of this
country.
And it is anything but a promise. It is a failure. It is a broken
promise to do our first job, and that is to protect the American
people, to provide for a common defense.
From denying we have a crisis in the first place, despite all the
evidence to the contrary, to irrationally calling walls immoral, to
repeatedly refusing to get the President the resources he needs to
secure the border and safely detain the children and families who have
made the dangerous trek, Democrats have been derelict in their
constitutional duty to defend our borders and to stop this flow of
illegal immigrants into our country.
We have a responsibility to safeguard our sovereignty as a nation and
know who is coming into this country.
President Reagan said: ``A nation that cannot control its borders is
not a nation.'' Right now, we have zero operational control of our
borders.
For the second straight month, Border Patrol agents apprehended more
than 100,000 people trying to cross the border illegally, the highest
number in 12 years. That is an average of 4,500 people a day. Homeland
Security experts say we apprehend one out of three. So we are talking
about thousands upon thousands of people that we don't even apprehend.
Just last week, Border Patrol agents in El Paso encountered a
thousand people who just walked across the border. We couldn't do
anything. We just let them go. We don't have the capacity. We don't
have the resources.
Even The New York Times and President Obama's Homeland Secretary Jeh
Johnson--no fans of this administration, for sure--have admitted that
the system is being pushed past the breaking point and that having over
4,000 people cross every day constitutes a crisis.
The situation is so bad, the Border Patrol agents are being forced to
release folks into the interior of our country because they have run
out of room to house everybody.
And from the great State of Texas, my home State, where we are on the
front lines against the fight against illegal immigration, I can tell
you that our brave patrolmen and -women are simply outnumbered and
overwhelmed.
And yet, in the midst of this unprecedented border crisis, what is
the solution from the Democrats? A blanket amnesty to millions of
people, to reward those who come over here illegally over the millions
who have respected our laws and waited in line to become citizens,
waiting for years to become citizens.
To grant amnesty to illegals while abandoning our own citizens and
their security needs is disconnected from reality. It is disrespectful
to our citizens, and it is downright un-American.
Mr. Speaker, I wish today's vote was an isolated incident.
Unfortunately, it is the latest in a long litany of examples that
exposes just how extreme the Democratic Party has become, whether it is
advocating for open borders, allowing for abortion up to point of
birth, or putting our country on the road to ruin with failed socialist
policies, and it is just another example of Democrats showing they are
more interested in opposing and obstructing a President than solving
real problems.
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