Speaker Mike Johnson Explains the State of the Border Crisis on the House Floor

today however uh I need to address the burning issue the the unprecedented challenge that we find ourselves in demands that we all address the issue of the day and it is no surprise to anyone in this chamber that that issue is America's border security and as I said here on the night that I took my oath we have a catastrophe at our Southern border it is because the Border has been deliberately opened wide that we see the the terrific Horrors that are taking place across our country right now here's a short list from Texas to New York waves of illegal immigrants are now overwhelming our communities just since the time I was elected speaker less than a 100 days ago more than 700,000 illegals have been welcomed into our country illegally by the Biden Administration American school children have been forced into virtual schools why so migrants can sleep in their school buildings Korean War veterans of the us have been booted from nursing homes that were sold to house migrants our streets are being flooded with fentel hundreds of thousands of Childrens and adults are being poisoned and losing their lives vulnerable children and women are being exploited and trafficked by cartels and that's happening even within our Borders The Fallout goes on and on and on and I am here this morning to beg of my colleagues to help us Force the admin Administration to take action we have to stop this now and put Americans and Americans border security first in January I I took the largest ever Congressional Delegation down to the southern border we had 64 members 64 House Republicans representing more than half the states in this country why because now every state is a border state and during our trip we met with senior border patrol officials and and uh officers and local sheriffs and and ranchers and land owners and Community leaders who are dealing with this crisis right there at the line and we heard about how they're struggling to deal with the overwhelming surge of illegals who are flooding into our nation and while the Senate and the White House were negotiating a so-called border security deal one border patrol official compared the situation this way he said what we're being asked to do right now this is a 33-year veteran of border patrol a high ranking official in in the agency he said what we're being asked to do right now is administer an open fire hydrant he said please convey to our friends in Washington we don't need more buckets we we need to turn off the flow and his metaphor explains the situation perfectly since President Biden and Alejandro mayorcas assumed office there have been more than 7 million encounters with illegal aliens just at our Southern border alone 35 of our 50 States including my home state of Louisiana don't have a population that large yet that's how many people have been apprehended in just the past three years among those who've been apprehended on the southern border but between ports of Entry more than 300 individuals who are on our Terror watch list terrorist watch list the frightening question is if so many terrorists were caught attempting to cross our borders how many have entered undetected we suspect it is a much higher number and we know that there are at least 1.8 million getaways that we know have escaped uh CBP who knows what dangerous plans those getaways are making and and and what foreign adversaries they may be speaking with understand the situation at our border presents a clear and present danger to our national security and it demands that it be addressed even officials within the executive branch are saying so FBI director Christopher Ray told the homeand security Committee just in November that these getaways are a great concern for the agency and that all 56 of our joint terrorism task forces are trying to identify who these people are while we don't know how many terrorists are inside our borders it's an unknowable number we do know that fentel is pouring into our communities like an open sewer right now the leading cause of death the leading cause of death in America for Americans age 18 to 46 is fentel poisoning and fentel seizures have increased two and a half times since President Biden took office that's just the seizures the rest of it flows right in but even as some of it is seized we know much more is making its way into our schools and our neighborhoods and virtually every community in America just a quick snapshot of my state in New Orleans in my home state 95% of the drug overdoses in New Orleans are caused by fentel 95% we see that this poison is ripping families apart Victoria McCully from Baton Rouge was only 29 years old when she lost her life to fentel she was buried by her parents leaving behind her brother and her sister and her young son Alex Stenson is another victim like Victoria he was from Baton Rouge and sadly also like Victoria he died from fentanyl poisoning before his 30th birthday leaving behind a heartbroken mom and dad and sister near Sidell Louisiana just last week a precious 2-year-old child was found dead in her home with fentel in her system moms and dads brothers and grandmothers all of us are losing loved ones to a drug that is being smuggled across the border in droves it's a parents worse nightmare of course burying a child and sadly because of our open border more and more parents are having to experience that unspeakable tragedy that leads the American people to ask a very important question and it is one that we've been asking on this side of the aisle for a long long time where in the world is secretary mayorcas on all of this he is the Secretary of of the Department of Homeland Security it's his responsibility to prevent these harmful drugs from flowing into our country and to secure that border and he's done nothing of the sort as we've heard from border patrol agents he's doing exactly the opposite he's he's handicapping law enforcement he's limiting their ability to catch narcotics like fentel he's making it virtually impossible they say in their own words and they told us down on the border at Eagle Pass it's impossible to do the job that they were trained to do perhaps the secretary is is busy identifying more people on on the list that he can release on parole because just since fiscal year 2022 secretary mayorcas has released released into the country more than 1.5 million aliens just sent am out into the country on what they call parole remember the immigration and nationality act States very clearly that parole should only be used on a caseby casee basis and a temporary basis but millions of illegals right right now are being granted parole and spending many years in the United States before they're ever even expected to appear before a judge some of them are given a a piece of paper that says we'll see you in a decade it's absurd this Mass parole is neither temporary nor selective it is a clear violation of federal law and it is dangerous and it is subversive and it's intentional and to make matters worse we've learned that the Biden Administration is now simply just simply releasing 85% of the illegals who come across that border right into the country they're coming to a neighborhood near you for reference by the way if you're watching the metrics in 2013 the Obama Administration listen to this the Obama Administration detained 82% of illegal aliens how do we go from detaining 82% to releasing 85% it only happens if this is by design it only happens if it's an orchestrated intentional effort by the administration to do exactly that that and that is what the evidence shows John Adams famously said facts are stubborn things and these are the facts and you can't look away this is only part of why chairman green and the house Homeland Security committee marked up articles of impeachment last night they wrapped that up at about 1:15 this morning and they did very important work for our country and we will be moving forward swiftly on those articles it's long overdue but secretary mayorcas is only part of the problem because earlier this month I I released a memo documenting 64 64 specific actions that the Biden Administration has taken to undermine our border security and to promote the mass release of illegals and dangerous persons into our country 64 times and here's just a couple of the many alarming actions and this is all public everybody can go see this the day he took office the very first day that he walked into the Oval Office President Biden revoked executive order 9844 you know what that did it ended construction of the border wall that Congress had already paid for everybody's seing the images on TV the materials out there rotting in the sun and the and the the elements why because Joe Biden decided unilaterally he didn't want a wall in February 2021 the the administration stopped applying title 42 expulsions to children and incentivized by doing that incentivized families to send unaccompanied children through Mexico under the watch of who cartels and traffickers since then the Administration has lost track they admit to this number they admit that they've lost track of more than 80,000 unaccompanied children somewhere in the US well we were down there at Eagle Pass at the Del R sector we went through one of these processing centers and and what we saw down there was heartbreaking it was infuriating but you see these small children they're unaccompanied miners some of them of course aren't even uh they can't even speak the language obviously they have interpreters there but they they don't even know who they are I mean these are young children they don't know what their full names are where they hail from who their parents are and and they sit them there and they ask questions some preliminary questions and if the children don't know it you know what they do literally they take a sticker and they put it on the chest of the little child that says Jane Doe or John Doe what happens to him after that oh we they border patrol says gosh we don't know our job is just to process them here well they're released presumably into the hands of NOS non-governmental organizations who are being refunded by the way by American taxpayers who do something with the children and then they just disappear well we know 80,000 of them are missing we don't know where they are have they been put into trafficking Rings we can only guess we we know that some of these kids are being trafficked for free labor and and being forced to do things that are too appalling for us to articulate on this floor everybody here knows that's happening everybody here knows that's happening and we're not demanding the president stop it he can he has the power to do it it I'll continue in October 2021 the Biden Administration revoked the migrant protection protocols that had been instituted under President Trump that's the the the policy that we all know uh colloquially is Romania Mexico right the Roman and Mexico policy kept Asylum seekers in a safe haven third country while they were seeking asylum in the United States you know why that works so magically well because it sent a message around the world that you shouldn't pay your life savings to a cartel to traffic you through Mexico Mexico and drop you over the US border because you're not going to be dropped over the US border hey save your time and treasure in trouble don't take that dangerous Journey because the word goes out on social media to countries all around the world they're not going to let you in man is that the most common sense rule you've ever thought of the president doesn't agree President Biden doesn't agree because he stopped it he issued an executive order to stop that Common Sense rule a senior border patrol officer told us on that trip to Eagle Pass that if the Biden Administration if President Biden by The Stroke of a pen would issue an executive order today to just simply reinstate Romania Mexico they think that that would stop the Flow by 70% sent 70 one stroke of a pin by the president he does not seem to care I told President Biden this myself on multiple occasions most recently a couple of weeks ago on the phone I read him the law that says that he has all this Authority but he refuses to act and even that's even despite court orders by the way that instructed the administration to rein reinstitute Romania Mexico while the litigation was going on you know what they did they ignored it the administration refused it I can keep going September 2022 the Biden Administration reversed a 2019 DHS public charge rule what was that about they began granting entry to aliens who we know will be a burden to taxpayers to receive immigration benefits this matters because it's one of many instances in which the B Administration is actively incentivizing illegals to come to the United States we have sent laid out the Welcome Matt we told everybody around the world come on come on you know what the US taxpayer will take take care of you you know how much it's costing you at home the American people all of our constituents billions and billions and billions of dollars to do what to provide for people who are intentionally breaking our laws billions and billions of dollars to house them and educate them and clothe them and take care of them why should we bear that burden when they break our laws that's what our constituents are asking and more people are in this chamber need to be asking it as well we're asking it on the house Republican side we need our Democrat colleagues to join us instead of threatening illegal aliens with deportation we're rolling out the welcome mat we're including aliens who will drain resources you know what here's the other tragedy the resources those precious taxpayer dollars are intended for and paid by American citizens but when you drain those resources and you spend them on illegals from other countries you cannot take care of your own it's a travesty you can also see this with how DHS has abused the cbp1 app right we've got an app we made it even easier now in January 2023 they expanded the use of the app so aliens could just make appointments and then be released immediately right into America's interior that sure enough guess what 95% of all illegals who simply scheduled appointments through the app were released right into the United States on what they call parole that's right all you got to do just download the app because they all have smartphones many of them coming over the Border download the app make an appointment and the president of the United States release into a network of NOS who will put you on a plane to the destination of your choice without any identification by the way while Americans are waiting in line to get through TSA all on the dime of the American taxpayer ask yourself is that right is that just is that good for America or anybody else involved it's not the open border combined with the incentives to come have produced a catastrophic year for our border patrol agents in September 2023 US border patrol recorded more more than 270,000 illegal alien encounters at the southern Border in one single month that was the largest ever up to that point but guess what that record was broken just a couple months later because in December this past December 2023 CBP recorded more than 302,000 encounters almost double the population of my hometown in treport Louisiana in just one month 302,000 people just walked right into the country and we saw it down there with their own two eyes and most recently as President Biden has failed to exercise his constitutional obligation to police the border and protect Americans now he's undermined Texas's ability to protect its citizens its residents you know Texas has a constitutional authority to take care of its people the first job of the government is to protect its citizens and when Texas is acted to do that the Biden Administration and the president himself have intervened they've taken them to court they're cutting their razor wire they're taking away the measures that the the state of Texas is taken out of desperation to protect its own people I could go on and on and on about all this the numbers and the actions the 64 actions that we've documented that President Biden has specifically taken to open that border wide up but it's Crystal Clear his policy choices and secretary Mor oris's refusal to comply with the law are driving this border catastrophe the Biden Administration has replaced detain and Deport with Catch and Release instead of order they have chosen for us disorder and Chaos rather than securing the Homeland they've seeded the Homeland to cartels and traffickers by the way at the at the Del Rio sector alone at Eagle Pass Texas they told us the cartels are they are estimated uh I think they said they're making $3.5 million a day trafficking human beings into the country do the math they're making over a billion dollars a year bringing undocumented children trafficed children victims right into the country and and and and and bringing them in they're doing this intentionally they have chosen disorder and Chaos they have seeded the homeland of the traffickers and the cartels and the Department of Homeland Security has effectively become a taxi driver to just help traffickers complete the last few miles of their human smuggling operation and they're making billions of dollars in the process it's all absolute Madness and it is dismantling the safety of our communities the house Judiciary Committee where I served before I became speaker recently released a report showing that right now there are more than 617,000 aliens on Isis non-detained docket non-detained docket who also have criminal convictions or pending criminal charges that's right you heard it right that means that more than half a million known criminals illegal aliens are in the US in our communities free to reoffend and victimize American people the president's actions are also creating a permanent underclass in our society here here's another sad secondary effect of this an underclass of non-citizens who receive many of the benefits of citizens citizenship he's inviting chaos and disorder within our land that is tearing at the very fabric of our society the president can put a stop to this President Biden and secretary mayorcas have designed this catastrophe and now rather than accept any accountability or responsibility for what they've clearly done President Biden wants to somehow try to shift the blame to Congress for his administration's catastrophy by Design it's absolutely laughable no one's falling for this my counter is this if President Biden wants us to believe he's serious about protecting our national security he needs to demonstrate good faith and take immediate action to secure that border but he won't do it he needs to immediately stop the mass release of illegals into our country but he won't do it if he wants our house Republican conference to view him as a goodfaith negotiator he could start with a stroke of a pen but he's got to do it quickly last week last week I received a letter from former top FBI intelligence officials including the former assistant director of intelligence Mr Speaker I I'd like to ask unanimous consent that the text of this letter be submitted into the Congressional Record without objection in the letter the signer said that America is facing a quote new and unfamiliar threat as my colleagues know you never want to hear our intelligence leaders speak about an unfamiliar threat but these former FBI officials told us that we are suffering in quote a soft Invasion along our Southern border they're they're stating what what is obvious to all of us they noted that we are experiencing a surge listen to this of military AED single men who are pouring into our country over the southern border from from adversarial Nations by the way and and from terrorist regimes when we were at Eagle Pass at the Del Rio sector in January earlier January 3rd with 64 House of Republicans they told us that between 60 to 70% % of the people coming across the border right there at that epicenter are single adult males they're military AED these are not huddled masses of families seeking refuge in Asylum these are people coming into our country to do only God knows what and we are allowing it the B Administration is allowing it and and and we've noted that um they're coming from adversarial nations from terrorist regions we have no idea what what they're planning but in fiscal year 2023 border patrol encountered illegals from 107 70 different countries including hundreds from Iran Syria thousands from Russia tens of thousands who have come in from China tell me that's not dangerous in this letter law enforcement and intelligence leaders are warning us that we may very well suffer a preventable terrorist attack here on the Homeland if we don't immediately secure that border and remove these dangerous terrorists from inside our borders House Republicans of course have acted last year we passed the secure the Border act this legislation would address the catastrophe it would fix the Asylum and parole processes that are so broken it would support our border border patrol agents the Senate could take that bill up today Chuck Schumer and the and the Democrats and the Senate have been sitting on it in their majority for nine months they could do it right now they could vote on that and and send it to the president's desk but they won't why because they're apparently okay with all this as well and while there may be some who think that it's not a good time to act I disagree good policy like a strong Border in securing our nation and defending our sovereignty is always good politics it's the right thing to do it's the moral thing to do it's the Constitutional thing to do it's the common sense thing to do and I cannot for the life of me understand why the president won't agree with that I've asked him myself repeatedly Mr President do something about it and he him halls and pretends that he doesn't understand what his authority is he knows what it is to be sure we're not going to agree to a fix that doesn't actually solve the problem we would be Derick in our duty if we did that because we know what the problems are we know how to fix them and and just like the Border official told us on that trip to the Rio Grand House Republicans are not here to supply more buckets we are here to stop the flow and stopping the flow is not Ro rocket science it takes political courage it it takes transformational policy changes that we know what policy changes will accomplish that this is not conjecture it's not Republican talking points this is what the experts at the border at the epicenter tell us is necessary and needed and it is insane that we will not supply it we're also taking action this very week right now we're doing this every day I I'd like to thank representativ cisman and Mento and more for their hard work on very important bills uh that the house is considering even this week these bills will hold foreign persons like criminal aliens accountable for their crimes and keep them out of our communities one of one of those bills is the agent Gonzalez officer safety act of course name for border patrol agent r Gonzalez who died in the line of duty while pursuing a group of illegal aliens it would provide stiffer penalties for aliens who attempted to evade arrest by the border patrol we'll also consider a bill to ensure that aliens who are convicted of drunk driving are both deportable and inadmissible believe it or not they're not currently the the third bill would provide stiffer penalties for illegal aliens who engage in Social Security identity theft the fourth bill would ensure that aliens who have ties to Hamas and the Palestinian Liberation Organization will not be granted entry into the United States these bills are obviously Common Sense measures to protect the American people they should gain support of Republicans and Democrats but my guess is not many Democrats have support it and the Republicans in the house will continue to press for secure borders to ensure America's immigration system serves the national interest and does not benefit aliens who are a danger to our own people now last Friday President Biden came out in support of the Senate's deal which we haven't seen yet there's no text yet but from what we've heard this so-called deal does include that does not include sorry does not include from we what we've heard these transformational policy changes that are needed to actually stop the Border catastrophe among the reported details of the bill again I'm working off reports because I haven't seen the text but apparently reportedly a new Authority would be created in the law so the president can quote shut down the Border once daily Crossings exceed 5,000 a day you okay right you heard that right okay so it is illegal to cross our border but apparently we're concocting some sort of deal to allow the president to shut down the Border after 5,000 people break the law wh why is it 5,000 if you add that up there'd be a million more illegals into our country every year before we take remedial measures it's Madness we should we should be asking what kind of enforcement Authority kicks in at 5,000 illegal Crossings a day the number should be zero zero and I don't care what congressional district you go into in America pull up uh uh people at random on the street and ask them hey should we allow 5,000 people to break our law each day to get a million into the country or should we stop it at zero and enforce our law it's it's it's m I don't know another word to describe this this madness anything higher is simply surrender anything higher than zero is surrendering our border surrendering our sovereignty and our security and it's important to point out and I want to make this very clear the president statement on Friday he falsely claimed it was a false claim that he needs Congress to pass a new law to allow him to close a southern border he knows that's not true the president has been around Washton a long time okay and the president repeated his claim yesterday on the White House law and he said quote I've done all I can do just give me the power I've asked for moments after his comments the president's own spokeswoman contradicted him and said quote there are things that are within his power to secure the Border well hello of course there are the law is very clear anybody can Google this any American citizen could just pull this up and read it for themselves let's set the record straight what he said is demonstrably false I've explained to him specifically I read the president of the United States the law the black letter law on the phone about two and a half weeks ago I said Mr President it says very clearly you have all the tools and the executive Authority necessary to reverse the catastrophe that you have created he has those tools right now and he has since day one the immigration and nationality act for example coupled with coupled with recent Supreme Court president give the president quote ample authority to suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens or impose any restrictions he may deem appropriate that's the broadest Authority that Congress probably has ever given a president and it's been there for a long long time in fact the very provision that I just read you was used by the Obama Administration ation more than 19 times it's been used I think 69 times by President since 1980 but not by President Biden he he pretends it's not there any attempt by this president to pretend that he's a bystander bereft of any ability to secure the border is patently absurd and we are going to continue to remind the American people of that if we take a step back and we consider the current catastrophy at the border we can all see that our country is at a critical decision point we are at a moment where we have to decide right now as a congress as a people we have to decide as the American people if we have Borders or not we have to decide if we believe in the rule of law or not we have to decide if we're a Sovereign Nation or we're not House Republicans do believe that America has borders and that we are a Sovereign Nation we believe we must set limits on the number of immigrants who enter obviously and the American people have a say on immigration policy understanding who enters in enforcing our immigration laws are critical components to maintain a sovereign country if you do not have sovereignty you do not have a country I also believe that border security is part of our solemn obligation to safeguard the well-being of our citizens and uphold the principles that Define who we are as a nation in no sense is border security somehow an act of hostility to neighboring countries it's exactly the opposite because a weak border weakens America and a strong border is good for America and a stronger America is good for everybody around the world and everybody in this chamber should acknowledge that and just as we lock our doors at night to protect our homes we secure our borders to protect our homeland and my friends that is our sacred obligation we in the house of Republican conference desperately want to protect our homeland because we want to ensure that all of our children and grandchildren can continue to enjoy the blessings of living Liberty that we have enjoyed and that we have loved and experienced and and we can continue this Grand experiment in self-governance we began in 1776 but here's the question I'll leave you with this does President Biden want that does President Biden believe in the rule of law does President Biden believe that we're a Sovereign Nation does he believe that Americans and not those from other countries should be put first every American citizen should be asking these questions of the president and helping us demand his answers