Secure the Border Act of 2023
Floor Speech
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Mr. GIMENEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 2.
We have a crisis at our southern border. When title 42 expires in just a few hours, that crisis will become a complete catastrophe.
In an effort to play petty politics, the Biden administration and Secretary Mayorkas have traded many effective policies implemented by President Trump for chaotic, unorderly, and inhumane immigration.
I arrived in the United States with my family shortly after the communist takeover of my native homeland. I understand the plight of many of those who are fleeing socialist regimes in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, because I, too, am an exile. I, too, am an immigrant.
We have legal processes already in place for people to immigrate to America legally and to solicit political asylum legally.
But what the Biden administration is doing is offensive, cruel, and inhumane. Lethal fentanyl is flooding our border, killing nearly 100,000 Americans every single year. According to The New York Times, there are over 85,000 migrant children unaccounted for, and many are being subjected to forced labor and child sex trafficking. I repeat: 85,000 unaccounted for children here in the United States. I ask you: Is that humane? I think not.
Lack of enforcement of our border is incentivizing illegal immigration and enriching corrupt Mexican drug cartels that extort the most vulnerable.
While the Biden administration endangers the American people, H.R. 2 tackles the crisis head-on. This bill resumes construction of the border wall that is needed, increases the number of border agents to 22,000, increases Federal grants to local law enforcement in border States, protects migrant children from human trafficking, streamlines the asylum process, and enforces background checks to bar repeat criminal offenders from reentering our country.
H.R. 2 provides a solution to the crisis that President Biden has created. Believe me, he has created it. Secretary Mayorkas and the Biden administration have failed to protect America, and our country is more dangerous than ever before.
Mr. Speaker, I urge support of the measure.
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