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Floor Speech

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Mr. HAGERTY. Mr. President, I rise today as the Senate again finds itself facing a potential government shutdown due to the majority leader's political games. And again, the Senate must consider what we will do in response to the grave national security crisis that is emanating from our southern border.

It is deja vu from 2 weeks ago, when I offered a simple amendment regarding just one corrosive, anti-Democratic effect of this crisis. My amendment would have stopped illegal aliens from being counted for allotting congressional seats and, therefore, electoral college votes.

It did so by requiring the census to determine basic population statistics--like the number of citizens, noncitizens, and illegal aliens who are living in this country--and by requiring that only U.S. citizens be counted for the purposes of determining the number of House seats and the number of electoral college votes in America.

Currently, illegal aliens are counted when determining Americans' representation in government and the worth of their vote. The more illegal aliens and noncitizens in your State or district, the greater your voting power in Congress and in Presidential elections.

This means that in a State like California--or a city like New York-- millions of illegal aliens result in several more congressional seats and electoral votes for that jurisdiction.

That helps explain why the majority leader worked so fervently 2 weeks ago to avoid a vote on my amendment--until it was clear that such obstruction would lead to a government shutdown. It also explains why every single Democrat voting on my amendment opposed it. Because when it comes to the census, the majority leader believes that ``every person must be counted.'' Evidently, that means illegal aliens too.

And with respect to commonsense proposals like mine--to count citizens, not illegal aliens--for apportioning voting power in America, what does the majority leader have to say? Well, he calls it an attempt to weaponize the census.

Really? That is quite rich. Aren't Democrats weaponizing the census by counting people living in our country illegally? Do we count diplomats? Do we count people who are here on vacation? Why would we count people who are here illegally? That is the essence of weaponizing the census.

Here is what is really going on. Several weeks ago, video emerged of a Democrat House Member from the majority leader's home State in which she called for more illegal immigration to her district for redistricting purposes.

What she means is that Americans are fleeing blue cities and States en masse because of bad government, but congressional seats are allocated based on population. So if you are losing population, you either have to backfill it or lose congressional seats.

This Representative stated that, because of her population loss, she needed to fill her district with illegal aliens to keep from losing her seat. That is exactly what my amendment would have prevented.

The Representative who made these comments is not only from the same State as the majority leader but she represents the same district that the majority leader formerly represented when he served in the House of Representatives.

This is the same district which houses James Madison High School. You remember James Madison High School. That is the school that cleared out its own students to make room for illegal alien housing. It is even the high school that the majority leader himself attended. You talk about weaponizing the census.

If you don't believe me, listen to what New York City is saying itself. Just last week, New York City announced that it is challenging the 2023 Census Bureau annual estimates, arguing that the government failed to count some 50,000 illegal aliens currently in the city. They are desperate to count these illegal aliens because 727,000 people have moved out of New York since 2020. They have got to backfill that population to preserve their Federal influence.

It is clear why the majority leader and my Democrat colleagues voted against any change to the census. It is not because they are afraid that Republicans will weaponize it; it is because Democrats already have weaponized it.

Prior to this vote, the concept was decried by Democrats in the media as a ``conspiracy theory.'' Democrats' unanimous vote against ending this practice changed it from a conspiracy theory to a conspiracy-- period.

It is why they have done nothing to secure our southern border, and it is why there is no outrage from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle when confronted with the fact that the number of illegal aliens who have entered the United States since Biden took office exceeds the population of 36 States. And President Biden and Democrats aren't just sitting back and allowing the crisis at our southern border to unfold; they are actively encouraging it.

For example, President Biden has been secretly flying hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens from foreign countries into blue-city airports across the United States in order to resettle them there.

Earlier this month, scarce details emerged regarding the administration's secret flights. They revealed that more than 320,000 illegal aliens were flown directly into the United States last year alone. One can't help but wonder whether the President is trying to make it even easier for blue States to backfill their declining populations and shore up their political power by delivering these illegal aliens directly to them.

Flying migrants from foreign countries into the United States in the midst of a record-shattering illegal immigration crisis is completely absurd. I plan to soon file an amendment to the appropriations bill that would prohibit the Biden administration from doing this.

I encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting this commonsense measure.

The question is simple: Are Democrats willing to allow a vote on my amendment to stop President Biden from using secret flights to import hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens into the United States? Or are they so desperate to preserve this political power grab that they can't risk the possibility of losing it by allowing such a vote to occur?

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