WASHINGTON, DC—U.S. Representative John Rose (TN-06) spoke on the House Floor Tuesday to criticize President Biden’s recent executive order on the border, aiming to limit the number of asylum seekers admitted into the United States to 2,500 in one day. Rep. Rose also cited border statistics under the Biden Administration.
The full remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below:
Mister Speaker, last week, President Biden signed an executive order to “limit” the number of asylum seekers that are allowed to enter the United States in one day. That number is 2,500.
I have many concerns about the timing of this action and about the open border policies that created this mess, but I want to first address that number. If that so-called limit was enforced each day for a full year, 912,500 foreigners would likely still be admitted into the United States, and that’s before all the loopholes and exceptions in his executive order are considered, which will drive this huge number even higher. The Biden Administration would have you believe this new policy will really crack down on the flow of illegal immigration into our country, but its effect will be marginal.
At best, this policy will slightly downgrade the unmitigated catastrophe at our southern border back to a mere full-blown crisis. This move confirms what House Republicans have been saying for months. President Biden created this border catastrophe by using his executive powers to reverse the Trump border policies that were actually working, like construction of a border wall and the Remain in Mexico policy; and the president can use these same executive powers to reimplement those Trump border polices to again make the border much more secure. But unfortunately, this weak effort doesn’t even come close.
President Biden’s gross mismanagement of the border has sent a message to the entire world to just come on in. The result? More illegal immigrant encounters every month under this administration than the worst month under the previous one.
Under President Biden, there have been more than 9.5 million illegal immigrant encounters at our borders. More than 7.8 million of them were reported at the southern border alone. We know at least 1.8 million people have managed to evade the U.S. Border Patrol. Over 350 people who have tried to enter the country were also on the terror watch list.
And the administration isn’t done setting records. So far, this fiscal year, there have been a record-breaking 27,583 Communist Chinese nationals encountered at the Southwest border. That’s an increase of about 8,000% from three years ago.
From the deadly fentanyl that’s flowing across the border to the cartels making record profits from human trafficking, this has had devastating impacts on countless men, women, and children. There are many human costs resulting from the open border. There’s also an actual monetary cost of more than $150 billion every year, costing each individual taxpayer an average of $1,156 each year.
The American people see this announcement for what it is, an election year public relations gimmick and an admission that there is indeed an unmitigated crisis at our southern border. Fortunately, the American people will have their own chance to secure the border this November.
We’re just a couple weeks from the presidential debate, Mister Speaker. I sincerely hope the president doesn’t claim this last-minute, weak move as a win or as taking real, meaningful action when we’ve endured almost an entire presidential term of open border policies.
You can watch the speech here.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://johnrose.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-rose-criticizes-executive-action-border-cities-statistics-ongoing-border