Speech #1090151494

Speaker. in all fairness. we should point to some successes by the Department of Homeland Security since last September in changing the policy from catch and release to catch and return. As I tell people back home in Tennessee. that the policy really was. going back to 1986. that you would actually release people coming across the southern border that were apprehended. you know. pending a court date. And there is always a chuckle in the audience because they know that that illegal immigrant would not show up for court. And so effectively the policy allowed them to come into this country and disappear. But I have just got to say. the folks that I represent. and this is really where we need to stay focused. the people back home. they know that we have a system in this country that people who are sick can walk into the emergency room of safety net hospitals and receive free health care. regardless of their ability to pay. regardless of their socioeconomic condition or even whether they are a citizen of this country. And as long as we have that system. then that system is very much at risk if we allow the continued increase of illegal immigration into this country. Now. they also say all we really care about. you people in Washington need to know is that you secure the southern border and slow and hopefully stop the influx of illegal Immigration across the southern border. I had a person ask me this past Saturday. at home at a meeting. what about the Canadian border? Well. it is important. too. but that is not where the influx of illegal immigration is coming across. It is the southern border. So you have got to go. you know. the hunters go where the ducks are. You know. if you are trying to stop the flow of Illegal immigration. you go where it is happening. And the lawless environment on our southern border demands action. People say. well. you cant build the Great Wall of China on the southern border.