Protecting Our Communities From Failure to Secure the Border Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to say to my Republican colleagues: Stop the xenophobic rhetoric about asylum seekers and draft some meaningful policy that addresses the migrant crisis in New York and across this country.

Deception and extremism are what my colleagues across the aisle are spewing. In this so-called piece of legislation, they claim that Federal land will be hurt. The Floyd Bennett Field lease does not put any of our public lands in harm's way.

In fact, this same field was used 11 years ago during Superstorm Sandy as a disaster relief center for New Yorkers displaced by the hurricane. Republicans had zero opposition to that.

Those who are voicing their feigned concern for our public lands are the same people who have repeatedly pushed policies to defund and degrade our public lands. In this Congress alone, Republicans are trying to slash the National Park Service's budget by nearly half a billion dollars. These are not ideas of a party that has actual concerns about our public lands and parks.

Instead, this is an example of extremists trying to push policies that vilify migrants rather than provide sensible solutions to a real crisis.

Democrats, on the other hand, are working every day to put people over politics. The Biden administration, for example, granted temporary protected status to one-half million Venezuelans so they can financially support their families and join the American workforce as they await their asylum court dates. Now those are real results in putting people over politics.

Democrats are ready to work on legislation that addresses the migrant crisis in a humanitarian manner, but we need Republicans to stop wasting time with their terrible and extreme bills and join us in getting back to work.

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