Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mrs. HINSON. Mr. Chair, I rise in support of the fiscal year 2024 Homeland Security Appropriations bill that will help to secure our border.

Since President Biden took office, there have been over 6 million illegal immigrant encounters at our southern border, and because of President Biden's open-border policies, we have seen countless illegal immigrants, including known people on the terror watch list, violent gang members and sex offenders released into the homeland. With this bill, we are finally doing what President Biden won't. We are securing our border.

My colleagues and I have been to the border, something the President hasn't bothered to do. We have spoken with law enforcement on the front lines. These brave men and women told us directly that this administration has undercut them at every turn and that they needed more resources to deter illegal immigration rather than incentivize it.

While their pleas seem to have fallen on deaf ears at the White House, we here as House Republicans have heard them loud and clear. In this bill, we deliver for them and for every State that, as a result of these policies, has become a border State.

We are restoring border security technology funding to its highest level. We are funding the 22,000 Border Patrol agents that CBP requested, and we are finally restarting border wall construction instead of letting those materials that taxpayers paid for rust away on the side of the road.

We are fully funding ICE detention capacity as a deterrent, and we are providing funding to deport illegal immigrants. Our southern border is a lawless free-for-all under the Biden administration, undermining the safety and security of Iowans and every American.

This bill delivers on our promise to secure the border and keep America safe, so let's shut down our border, and let's keep our government open and move this bill forward.

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