Lou Correa Slams House Republicans For ‘Looking At The Past’ On Border Security Policies

3 days ago

During Tuesday’s House Homeland Security Committee hearing, Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA) discussed the House Republican focus on the Biden Administration's border security policies.

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Transcript

00:00opening statement. Thank you, Chairman Guest, and I concur with you.

00:06Thank you for being chair of this committee. I look forward to working with you

00:10on border security. Border security, in my opinion, it's not just border security,

00:15it's national security. And this is not an issue of Democrats or Republicans, but rather

00:20it's an issue that addresses all taxpayers, all citizens in this great nation.

00:26Today's our first subcommittee hearing, 119th Congress.

00:32This topic, selected by you, Mr. Chairman, we're looking at the past, yet

00:42I'd like to look at the future and what the challenges are for us at the border in this

00:48nation. We're not looking at conducting oversight on how the Trump administration

00:55is ripping away legal statuses, legal rights, work permits from immigrants lawfully within this

01:02country, ending parole for Ukrainian war refugees or Venezuelans or Cubans, in addition to ending

01:12status for Afghan refugees who fought alongside American troops in Afghanistan. We have to keep

01:21our moral obligation to those that have fought next to our American troops for those that had

01:28the back of our American troops overseas. We don't want to talk about ICE agents questioning

01:34and arresting American citizens, U.S. citizens, Mr. Chairman, or efforts to deport

01:43U.S. veterans, immigrant veterans that have been essentially fighting for this country,

01:53or U.S. citizen children with brain cancer. We need to address these issues, Mr. Chairman.

01:59I recently met with frontline CBP officers who expressed frustration with this new administration

02:07and how they're addressing efficiency initiatives,

02:12yet today we won't be discussing those issues. Instead, we're looking at the past.

02:20Let's be clear. The Biden administration left President Trump with declining border crossing,

02:28record number of fentanyl seizures, despite my colleagues not wanting to admit it,

02:33and sadly for me, I hate to admit it, a higher daily rate of deportations

02:41than we've seen in a very long time.

02:45When President Trump first left office, unauthorized border crossings were at a rise,

02:52gotaways were on a rise, and synthetic opiate deaths were also on the rise.

02:58In fact, in those days, they were already calling it a crisis,

03:04and that was in the President Trump's first watch. Now that he's back in office,

03:11I was hoping, Mr. Chairman, that we focus on oversight of what's happening now at the border,

03:18yet it's hard to fix things when the administration, today's administration,

03:22refuses to tell our staff what's happening at the border.

03:24I hope we'll have the administration here to answer some questions

03:28as we begin to address and continue to address national security.

03:34Mr. Chair, President Biden is gone, and let's focus today on the nuts and bolts of border security.

03:42For example, fixing severe staffing shortages at our ports of entry, stopping cartels from

03:48stopping cartels from getting American-made weapons, those are the issues we need to focus on.

03:56Yet today, the new administration is doubling down on cutting the federal workforce and gutting DHS

04:05in the name of efficiency and cost savings. Yet we're looking, completely overlooking the fact

04:11that Secretary Noem just spent $200 million, $200 million on TV ads praising the new president.

04:22We're also overlooking the fact that the administration spent $16 million to fly

04:29300 detained immigrants to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba just to send them back to the United States.

04:39And it's also my understanding that this new administration also directed our soldiers

04:43to construct tents and hold detained immigrants in Guantanamo

04:48at a cost of $3 million, new tents in Guantanamo for $3 million.

04:54But they weren't even built to DHS standards, so they were not even used.

05:01How's that for cost savings, Mr. Chairman?

05:05Mr. Chairman, another example, in one facility in Texas, we're spending thousands of dollars

05:13to detain a working family and their six and eight-year-old children.

05:21And I guess this is what America, safer America, looks like today.

05:29Let's not forget, with all the law enforcement agents like DEA, FBI, ATF,

05:36they're being forced to become deportation officers, away from their priority investigations

05:43of drug cartels, money laundering, child sex trafficking.

05:48Sadly, some of these cases may be going unsolved and will become cold cases.

05:55This administration's push to inflate ICE arrests and deportations, DHS ended up rounding up

06:02Venezuelan-American families whose citizen children were recovering from brain cancer.

06:09That's right, a 10-year-old American with brain cancer was deported by this administration.

06:14Again, an American citizen, 10 years old.

06:19And by the way, parents had no criminal record and hadn't been here for quite some time.

06:26Again, is this what makes America look safer, or America safe again?

06:33Mr. Chairman, I look forward to working with you on future hearings to focus on what makes

06:39our border stronger, safer, what keeps our border safe, and what keeps our children safe.

06:48Our neighborhood safe, what keeps fentanyl, other narcotics off our streets,

06:54as well as bad people from entering this country.

06:57And of course, while improving international trade, that is good for America.

07:03Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for holding this hearing.

07:06And with that, I yield.

Lou Correa Slams House Republicans For ‘Looking At The Past’ On Border Security Policies

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