'A Monument To The Hypocrisy Of The Left': Tom McClintock Drops The Hammer On Dems' Border Policies

10 hours ago

During a House Natural Resources Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) spoke about the environmental harm caused by illegal immigration.

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Transcript

00:00I think I'll now recognize myself for five minutes.

00:04I am shocked by the testimony we just heard.

00:07I have personally seen this enormous garbage patch

00:10that stretches across the southern border.

00:13The problem is illegal aliens don't only disobey

00:16our immigration laws, they also disobey

00:19our environmental laws with impunity.

00:24The piles of garbage that have been left behind

00:27are a major blight and a monument

00:30to the hypocrisy of the left.

00:33And to posture as a guardian of our federal lands

00:37and not recognize that is appalling to me.

00:40It leaves me to believe that the Democratic witness

00:43has either not been there or just doesn't care.

00:46But that's the least of the damage

00:50of deliberately trafficking eight million

00:52unvetted and impoverished illegal aliens into this country.

00:55The mass migration has overwhelmed our public schools,

00:59our public hospitals, our food pantries,

01:01our homeless shelters, they forced down wages

01:04for working American families.

01:06Supporting this impoverished population

01:08costs American taxpayers about $160 billion a year.

01:14Think of that as about $1,300 of your taxes

01:17as an average household every year.

01:20Worst of all, it's introduced into our cities

01:22the most violent criminal gangs and cartels on the planet,

01:26often shielded from deportation

01:28by the Democrat sanctuary laws.

01:29And yet it appears from what we just heard,

01:31the Democrats are still supporting these policies.

01:34One of the most appalling obstacles

01:37to enforcing our immigration laws

01:38has been the restrictions and the obstacles

01:42placed in the way of the border patrol

01:44by environmental regulations

01:46that hamper their operations along the border.

01:48Mr. Perez, has the environment on our federal borderlands

01:52improved over the last four years,

01:54now that eight million illegal aliens

01:56were allowed to cross into our country

01:58and leave their garbage behind them?

02:00Not at all, sir.

02:01What have you observed?

02:04Well, in a lot of these areas, these restrictions,

02:06they don't allow us free reign to patrol those areas,

02:09so the cartels take advantage of our inability

02:13to go in and patrol.

02:15We can only enter a lot of these under emergency situations,

02:19and because of that, we're not able to go out there

02:21and detect or deter.

02:23I've made probably 10 trips to the border

02:25over the last four years,

02:27and the amount of garbage that has piled up is just appalling.

02:31Have you seen the same thing?

02:33Yes, sir, everywhere I've worked, I've seen the same thing.

02:35And that's not American tourists.

02:38Those are illegal migrants

02:40who are not only thumbing their laws at our immigration laws,

02:43but also our environmental laws.

02:49So the democratic policies have not only harmed the environment.

02:53Let's talk about our immigration laws.

02:55Without enforcing those laws, we've got no immigration laws.

02:58Without immigration laws, we have no border,

03:00and without a border, we have no country.

03:02So, Mr. Perez, could you elaborate on the impediments

03:05that these environmental regulations have imposed

03:07on your agency's ability to enforce our immigration laws?

03:11Yes, sir, like I said,

03:12we're not able to get in and access all of this land.

03:16We're not able to put the tactical infrastructure,

03:18such as portable radio repeaters, cameras,

03:22anything that allow us to better secure the border

03:25and detect anybody coming across.

03:27So the cartels, they take advantage of that.

03:30They're able to cross people.

03:31They're able to cross drugs,

03:33and they're also able to cross southbound money

03:36and weapons as well.

03:37So they don't follow the laws.

03:39They don't follow the regulations

03:40that our agents have to follow.

03:43So it is an impediment.

03:44Sheriff Cleveland, the Sheriff of Tulare County

03:47testified before the Immigration Subcommittee recently

03:50and estimated that about half of the crime

03:53that he's now dealing with in Tulare County, California

03:56is generated by migrants,

03:59including the notorious Sinaloa Cartel,

04:03which actually has assassination teams

04:05that go after the enemies of their gang.

04:10This comports with NYPD that was estimating

04:15that about two-thirds of the crime

04:17that they're dealing with in Manhattan is migrant-related,

04:20about, I think, half or so in Queens.

04:23What are you seeing in your county?

04:26Well, as I mentioned,

04:27I retired as a Border Patrol agent in my county.

04:29I spent the last 11 years there,

04:30and I can tell you that I have arrested illegal aliens,

04:34not only as a Border Patrol agent,

04:35but as a sheriff that have criminal records.

04:39Do they all have criminal records?

04:41No, but many of them do.

04:43Well, the Democrats, as the president pointed out,

04:46told us that, well, there's nothing they can do about that

04:48is they deliberately trafficked

04:50eight million illegal aliens into our country.

04:54I think the president was right.

04:55We didn't need new laws.

04:56We needed a new president.

04:57We got one, and we've seen a decrease

05:00of 95 to 97% of illegal border crossings.

05:03Thank God.

05:04I'm out of time.

'A Monument To The Hypocrisy Of The Left': Tom McClintock Drops The Hammer On Dems' Border Policies

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