Laken Riley Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from North Carolina for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, it is so important that we have this debate on the floor and that we pass the Laken Riley Act.

It would be more significant if later tonight in this very Chamber Joe Biden joined us and said that he was going to finally take action, using the same pen that on day one when he became President he used to undo all of those actions that were securing our border if he would say he is going to reverse those actions.

He can work to restore the remain in Mexico protocol, getting us back to a functioning asylum process. He could take direct action with his own pen, no act of Congress, to end catch and release, so that when people come here by the millions as they have, they are not just allowed to go into the interior of our country where we don't even know where they are going.

Governors can't tell you how many people have come into their States illegally, where they are showing up. You see it in cities where they are showing up and they are shutting down schools and gymnasiums to house people.

This is out of control and Joe Biden created the mess. He could solve it, but short of Joe Biden solving it, the House has taken multiple actions to address it.

This Republican House came together last year to pass H.R. 2, a bill designed to actually secure America's border. We took all of those necessary actions, whether the President wants to or not, doing the things that it takes, working with our Border Patrol agents to secure America's border so that we don't have what we have seen, at least 8 million people that have come across illegally.

When you look at some of the devastating consequences, Laken Riley is just one example. I pray for her and I pray for her family. No family should have to go through what Laken Riley's family is still grieving with today, but, unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, this is not even an isolated incident.

It is happening over and over again in communities all across America ever since Joe Biden opened our southern border, allowing millions of people to come in. You are seeing countries emptying out prisons to send people here. People on the terrorist watch list, over 140 that we know of on the terrorist watch list, that have been detained. How many that we don't know of that haven't been caught that are here in America planning to do us harm because Joe Biden opened the southern border?

There is serious negative consequences to those actions that Joe Biden took. When you think about Kenner, Louisiana, a community in my backyard, part of which I represent in my district, just days ago a 14- year-old girl was raped by someone here illegally.

You saw just recently where a 2-year-old was murdered by someone here illegally. How many more communities are going to have to suffer? How many more families are going to have to be victims before Joe Biden admits this problem and then works with us to solve it?

They tried passing a bill in the Senate that actually makes it worse, that codifies things like catch and release, and that gives over a billion dollars of your taxpayer money to fund lawyers for people here illegally.

Yes, that was in the Senate bill that even the Senate didn't pass after all of that hoopla about a bipartisan coalescence. They didn't even pass that bill once they read it.

The House did pass a bill to solve this problem. Today, we are coming together to pass another bill here with the Laken Riley Act to solve this problem, but the worst part of it is, this problem should have never happened if Joe Biden didn't take the steps he took with the pen to open the southern border. He could close it himself. He chooses not to.

We came together and said, then we will close it, Mr. President, and issued veto threats on those bills. He wants an open border, but does he want the consequences to?

Will he look those families in the eye and tell them enough is enough and apologize to them? He could do that tonight from that podium. I sure hope he does, but in the meantime what he really needs to do is work with us to end this madness, to secure America's border, and get back to a functioning, legal system of immigration in America like every other country has so that we don't see this endless flow that is devastating communities all across America.

Mr. Speaker, let's pass the Laken Riley Act and, hopefully, there will be no more examples like Laken Riley in the future.

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