Providing for Consideration of H.R. Utilizing Space Efficiently and Improving Technologies Act of and Providing for Consideration of H. Res. Denouncing the Biden Administration's Immigration Policies
Floor Speech
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Mr. FALLON. Mr. Speaker, we have myths and then we have facts. Let's go over some myths for a second, particularly when you talk about the border.
Myth one I heard was, the GOP doesn't have any solutions and doesn't want to solve this border crisis. We are not just having a crisis anymore. I would say it is a calamity. Then somehow Donald Trump calls, and a bipartisan deal that would solve the border crisis is scuttled; and that H.R. 2, which was the omnibus border security bill, was somehow radical.
Let's talk about facts now. First of all, Donald Trump didn't call and scuttle anything. We want to solve this crisis because we took an oath to the Constitution. In solving the crisis, we need a bill that will do that. The so-called bipartisan bill coming out of the Senate no House Republican even had any input on those discussions at all. There were major flaws in that legislation, and there were loopholes.
I do agree with the gentleman from Massachusetts--where I was born and raised for my first 22 years--that this is a divided government, and you do need to have some compromise if you want to get anything done on everything. You need to strike a deal that works and gets things done. I understand that we are not going to dictate. We are in no position to. At the same time, you have to have workable solutions and not just things that are political but can solve issues.
Let's talk, again, about some inconvenient truths. In the two prior administrations--and I am talking about the Obama and Trump administrations--at this juncture in their Presidencies, there were about 1.7 million illegal border encounters. This administration has seen that number explode to 8 million. There is a problem. There is something fundamentally different now than in the past.
The last couple years of the Trump administration, there were three people who were on the terrorist watch list that were apprehended. Last fiscal year it was 169. Chinese nationals, mostly of military age, under the Trump administration's final years, it was about 450 in a given year. That ballooned to 40,000-plus. That is alarming. That is concerning. The cartels have never made more money. They are charging somewhere between $4,000 and $7,000 a head. The folks who are crossing the border illegally represent 170 countries.
Fentanyl deaths have doubled. Other than a couple of outlier years in, I think, the year 2000--so for the last 20-plus years--we had never had a month where we had 200,000 illegal border crossings. Under this administration, we have had 20. In December, we had 300,000 illegal crossings. In FY 2017, there were 300,000 all year.
There are things fundamentally different and wrong. The border is wide open. Republicans want to solve it because we took a sacred oath to secure the safety of American citizens because if you are not safe, then you are not free.
Here are our solutions: Wait in Mexico will reduce this flood by 70 percent. Ask anybody who deals with the border, any expert who is honest.
Border walls and other barriers actually work. You find them around the White House, you find them around people's beach houses and mansions in Malibu. Around when we had the State of the Union Address, there was a fence. For 6 months after January 6, there was a fence.
Expedited removal, punishing folks who overstay their visas, E- Verify. Those are all workable solutions, that are not radical. The American people are crying for them. If our friends across the aisle don't recognize that, they are going to rue the day come November of this year.
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