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Floor Speech

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Mrs. FISCHER. Madam President, earlier this year, I visited our Nation's southern border. My colleagues and I joined several patrols to see the problems firsthand, and at each of our stops, what we saw was very, very alarming. Dozens of people sat on the ground at midnight at the border, waiting to go to a crowded processing center for illegal immigrants. As we patrolled the Rio Grande Valley, we passed trail after trail used by illegal migrants to traffic drugs and people into our country. Meanwhile, we walked past an open, unfinished border wall. We toured a raided stash house, where a weapon was found, an illegal immigrant was detained, and a human smuggler was arrested.

These experiences--they just scratch the surface of the chaos overwhelming our southern border. Our border is a frenzy--a frenzy--of illegal activity, and because of neglect and inaction from this administration, this disaster is out of control.

There is a humanitarian crisis at our southern border. There is a deadly drug crisis at our southern border. Perhaps most critically, there is a national security crisis at our southern border.

Since President Biden took office, over 8 million migrants have illegally crossed our southern border. Border Patrol agents have seized over 51,000 pounds of fentanyl. We have seen an uptick in encounters with illegal migrants from adversaries like China. That is not even to mention the 295--294; I don't want to exaggerate because we don't need to exaggerate on numbers like this--the 294 known terrorists who have been identified at our border. Hundreds of people on the Terror Watchlist are flooding our border. To put those numbers in perspective, Border Patrol agents encountered a grand total of 11 people--11 people--on that list during the 4 years of the last administration.

My Democratic colleagues support security for Taiwan, they support security for Ukraine, and they support security for Israel, but what they won't support is basic border security for the United States of America. Yesterday's classified briefing on the supplemental underscored how ridiculous this is. The United States is the leader of the free world. We are supporting the security of our partners and allies around the globe. Yet we are told by the Biden administration and my Democratic colleagues that we can't support the security at our own border? We are told that our own border security is not related to this national security supplemental? That is absurd, and the American people know that it is absurd.

Many of my Republican colleagues and I have been willing to compromise, but we have had it. We have had it with the evasive answers and the total neglect of our own border.

Border security is not a fringe issue. According to an NBC poll, 53 percent of voters support more military funding for Taiwan, 55 percent support more funding for Ukraine, and 55 percent support more funding for Israel, but 74 percent of voters support more funding for our border security. That is 20 percent more than anything else that voters support in this supplemental.

My Republican colleagues and I are siding with the American people on this funding request. Yes, we should address the conflicts raging around our world. We must stand by our allies and our partners. But we cannot forget the catastrophic issues that we are seeing on our own doorstep. We must secure our own Nation before anything else. If this supplemental funding bill truly aims to protect our national security, it must address our security from all sides, and the side that is in the most dire need of support is our battered and chaotic border.

But money alone is not going to repair the border. We must make commonsense policy changes to address this crisis. Let's tighten our asylum standards. Let's limit the use of parole to the required, case- by-case basis. Let's close the catch-and-release loophole.

I urge the rest of my colleagues and our President to look at this border crisis seriously and to respond with urgency--the urgency that this requires. The security supplemental is the right opportunity to do so.

Side with the American voters. Side with common sense, and let us protect our border.

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