Border Crisis

Floor Speech

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Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss the ongoing crisis at the southern border, President Biden's failure of leadership, and the dire need to fix this crisis now.

Every year, I hold a townhall in each of the 60 counties in the Big First District. I just finished townhall 22 for this year, and at each of those townhalls, Kansans have brought up the border crisis as one of the top issues on their minds. I share their outrage. The crisis at our southern border is unnecessary, and President Biden has only escalated it.

Since President Biden took office, there have been more than 7 million illegal encounters at our southern border. There have been 2 million known got-aways. These are just the people whom we know about who avoided apprehension and entered our country illegally. That is nearly 13 congressional districts and is over three times the population of the State of Kansas.

There have been 312 suspects on the terrorist watch list apprehended trying to cross our southern border. No one knows how many terrorists actually made it into our country.

Meanwhile, crime is spiking; our brave Border Patrol agents are overwhelmed; and lethal drugs like fentanyl are pouring into this country, wreaking havoc on our families and killing Americans.

The word is out all over the world: President Biden hasn't just created a porous southern border. He has created a wide-open border with a welcome mat, and he has done so with disregard for law and order.

I have been to the southern border. I saw human heartbreak, scared children, overcrowded facilities, and evidence of crimes committed by Mexican cartels, which are making $13 billion a year smuggling people and drugs into our country.

I also saw giant sections of the unfinished border wall with the materials to finish those sections literally sitting there, lying in piles in the sun.

Fixing the border crisis isn't rocket science. It would just take a few commonsense steps.

House Republicans have done our job. Eight months ago, we passed H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act. That legislation required the Biden administration to restart construction of the southern border wall, deploy state-of-the-art technology to strengthen the border security system, ensure transparency from the Department of Homeland Security regarding illegal crossings, and increase the number of Border Patrol agents.

The Secure the Border Act would also strengthen existing laws to protect children from human trafficking, terminate catch and release, end the abuse of executive immigration authority, and make critical reforms to streamline the asylum process.

Those are commonsense steps to fix the border crisis. It is time for the U.S. Senate and President Biden to act.

President Biden needs to fix this crisis now. He needs to end catch and release, stop the abuse of the asylum system, finish the wall, invest in more Border Patrol agents, and reinstate the remain in Mexico policy.

It is estimated that if President Biden would just reinstate the remain in Mexico policy, which he inherited on day one of his Presidency and which was working until he reversed it, then it could reduce the flow of migrants to the border by up to 70 percent.

Again, the legislation to do all of this has already passed in the House. President Biden could end this crisis today if he wanted to.

Migrant encounters at the southern border hit a new record last month at 302,000, with 12,600 on December 18, which was a single-day record. If that doesn't wake up the administration to reality, then I am not sure what will. Let's fix the problem at our southern border and secure our country now.

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