Secure the Border Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. FRY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support today of H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act of 2023. For years, we have heard from this administration, we have heard from our colleagues across the aisle that we are imagining a border crisis. There is nothing to see. Everything is fine on our southern border.

We are not imagining an increase in human trafficking. We are not imagining the dramatic escalation of fentanyl and fentanyl poisoning in our country. We are not imagining 5 million people who have entered this country illegally, the 1.2 million got-aways, or the nearly 100 people that were on the terrorist watch list since this President took office. We are not imagining a border crisis.

Cartels are making $13 billion a year off of smuggling people into this country. We are destabilizing an entire country because we are failing to act. This doesn't include what they are making off the drugs they smuggle either. This, quite simply, Mr. Speaker, is unconscionable.

While we are bankrolling the cartels, we are bankrupting our country. I visited the southern border, and I wish that more of my colleagues across the aisle would have done the same. Because when you go down there and you listen to farmers, ranchers, family members, hospital systems, people all over from every walk of life, they say the same thing when we asked them at our hearing: Is the border secure?

The resounding answer from the entire crowd of several hundred was no.

Do you feel safe in your community?

No again.

We see this time and time again from this administration where they have failed to act and put our Nation in jeopardy. This crisis is a drain on law enforcement. It is a drain on hospitals. It is a drain on taxpayers and resources across the board.

South Carolina is 2,000 miles away from the border, but we, like every single State, are a border State. We see the fentanyl in our communities. We see what is happening on the southern border. We see what is going on in our neighborhoods across this country. Our entire Nation is dealing with the effects of Joe Biden's border crisis.

It is the Federal Government's primary responsibility to protect our Nation and secure our borders, but that is not happening.

We must resume construction of the wall. We must hire more Border Patrol agents. We must end catch and release.

Mr. Speaker, we must pass this bill.

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