| For Immediate Release
February 29, 2024 Contact: Taylor Haulsee
WASHINGTON — This morning, Speaker Johnson joined Leader Steve Scalise, Whip Tom Emmer, Vice Chair Blake Moore, and Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne to discuss the ongoing border crisis and President Biden’s photo-op in Brownsville, TX, the “29th ranked hotspot” for border crossings.
Click here to watch the Speaker’s full remarks.
Read the Speaker’s remarks below:
“It’s another busy week on Capitol Hill. There’s a lot going on. Let me give you a couple updates. On Tuesday, I went to the White House and met with the President, the Vice President, leaders Schumer and McConnell and Hakeem Jeffries – my counterpart in the House. I told them the obvious truth. The obvious truth is very simple. You’ve heard it repeated here multiple times this morning. We hear it all over the country. I’ve been in multiple states over the last week, all over the country: the obvious truth is that we have to take care of America’s needs first, we have to.
“The border is the issue to every American, no matter where they live, no matter where their state is because every state’s a border state. If we’re going to take care of America’s needs first, that means two things: It means securing the border. I would repeat it 10 times for emphasis, but you understand what we’re saying here. We have to secure the border. We have to do it. And we’ve got to fund our government. And so, this week, we’re working very hard to do both of those things. We’re trying to urge the President to use his executive authority to do something meaningful to stop the hemorrhaging at the border, stop the flow, reduce the flow. At the White House I talked to him about this specifically. I reiterated to him the specific provisions of the federal law that give him broad authority to do that, to unwind the extraordinary, unprecedented damage that he has done with his policies. This is a catastrophe of their design.
“As was mentioned earlier by Vice Chairman Blake Moore, we documented 64 specific actions beginning on the day he took the office of executive orders and agency orders and actions that opened that border wide and created this chaos and everybody in America knows it. Everybody knows the President has authority to do something and he won’t, and I cannot understand why he won’t. So, I pleaded with him to do that. Meanwhile, we’re getting the funding government funding piece done as well. I wish we could say the same about that border security.
“The President is going to the border, you’ve heard. It’s his only second visit in three years with everything going on as bad as it is, with the statistics as horrible, catastrophic as they are the effects in every community. He’s only seen fit to go twice. And he’s going for a photo op as you said to Brownsville which is the 29th ranked hotspot on the border. Why would he go to the 29th ranked hotspot? Because he doesn’t really want to see the reality.
“We tried to explain it to him. The National Border Patrol Council themselves call President Biden’s visit quote ‘too little too late.’ I think that’s an understatement. Also, today former President Trump is visiting Eagle Pass. That’s where I lead a group of 64 House Republicans on January 3, it was the largest Congressional trip ever. Many of us have been down to the border many times but that was the largest group to go together. And the side-by-side image of these two presidents could not be a greater contrast.
“One president was building a wall. President Trump he was cracking down on those trying to cross the border illegally. He was supporting our CBP agents, he used his executive authority to stop illegal immigration. The current President, Biden, he’s doing exactly the opposite of all those things. He stopped construction on the wall, he halted deportations, he ceded operational control to the cartels and the traffickers. And he did everything he couldto incentivize illegal immigration. Long story short, one president showed strength and the other showed weakness. I mean, that’s just what it is. One President stood for control. The other stood for chaos at the border. So, House Republicans, meanwhile, are continuing to fight for strength and control. We want to keep criminals out and our families safe and that’s what the American people want. They demand that they deserve it from the Congress. That’s why we’re pushing for enforcement of the laws.
“Last week, Laken Riley, of course, we all know the UGA nursing student, tragically killed by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela came across that border released to New York under asylum laws. He committed multiple crimes, he wasn’t deported, and he went on to take Lakens’ life brutally. That story has been repeated across the country, in communities all across the country and, sadly, tragically, unnecessarily will continue we fear.
“Multiple other vulnerable Americans had been victimized just in the last week by illegal immigrants, many of them minors. And don’t forget every week, 22 kids per week, die from drug overdoses, the overwhelming majority of those are from fentanyl poisoning fentanyl as we all know, we repeat here almost weekly, is the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 49. Some say those are just anecdotes. I say it’s the result the completely foreseeableresult of Biden’s open borders and catch and release policy. It has to end. As I told President Biden during our meeting on Tuesday, he needs to take executive action right now. He needed to take it yesterday and the day before. He needs to secure that border and protect our communities because lives are being lost. And we cannot wait.”
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