Speech #1130112993

Madam Speaker. it is a proven fact that lawlessness breeds lawlessness. and. sadly. I believe this assertion sums up the issue that is confronting us today. Thanks in large part to the Presidents political decision not to enforce our immigration laws. a chaotic situation has erupted into a national security crisis and a law enforcement nightmare along the border. We all know the facts: An estimated 90.000 unaccompanied alien children will cross into south Texas Rio Grande Valley by the end of this fiscal year. Another 145.000 children are estimated to flood the border in fiscal year 2015. And these staggering figures do not include the tens of thousands of families who will also surge across our border over the same period of time. As a result of this influx. our brave Border Patrol agents. CBP officers. and ICE agents are spending countless hours in caring for children rather than focusing on their primary enforcement missions. This would be tragic if it werent so preventable. Madam Speaker. we do not have an open border policy in this country. and as we tragically learned on 9111. border security and the integrity of our immigration system truly matter to our Nations security and the rule of law. So. today. we offer a strong but initial step to provide both the right tools and the right authorities to address and deter this seemingly unending influx of illegal aliens. Included in this package is $405 million. completely offset by recovered funds. for the Department of Homeland Security. funds that will enable the CBP and ICE to enforce our laws and apprehend. detain. and deport illegal aliens. Perhaps most importantly. this bill fully funds the administrations realization that detention is. in fact. a necessary deterrent to illegal immigration. The President requested funds to fully support the longmandated annual bed capacitya complete reversal from his budget request in which he proposed. instead. to reduce detention beds by nearly 10 percent. The President has also retracted his policy on the detention of families who illegally cross the border.