WASHINGTON, DC—U.S. Representative John Rose (TN-06) took to the House Floor Wednesday to highlight a series of violent crimes involving suspects who are in the country illegally. Rep. Rose also urged the Biden Administration to take immediate executive action at the southern border.
The full remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below:
Mister Speaker, last week, our country lost an innocent soul to the horrors of illegal immigration when 22-year-old Laken Hope Riley was brutally murdered by a Venezuelan citizen who illegally entered our country in September 2022. Laken Riley was a nursing student at Augusta University’s Athens campus who was out on a morning run near the intramural fields at the University of Georgia. May her soul rest in peace.
Unfortunately, this is what Americans across the country have come to expect since President Biden took office. His administration has enacted and implemented numerous open-border policies ostensibly welcoming these sorts of tragedies.
In addition to this terrible tragedy that occurred in Georgia, local authorities in Virginia arrested a 32-year-old Venezuelan migrant in connection with a sexual assault on a minor. Just like the murderer who allegedly killed Laken Riley, this individual also entered the country in September of 2022 after being detained and released by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas.
In our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., a man accused of shooting three D.C. police officers is found to be in our country illegally with an active deportation order with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. All three of these terrible, completely avoidable tragedies occurred in the same calendar month—just a week apart.
Mister Speaker, these are the consequences of the Biden Administration’s open-border policies. There is no doubt that President Biden’s open-border policies are the direct causes of this once-unimaginable loss of life.
To make matters worse, just days after both illegal immigrants from Venezuela who allegedly murdered a Georgia nursing student and sexually assaulted a minor in Virginia, President Biden said that the border was secure and that it was quote “not rational” to deport illegal immigrants from Venezuela. If deporting illegal immigrants is not rational, then that begs the question,
Mister Speaker, what is rational? Simply doing nothing but keeping the border wide open isn’t.
As a father of two young children growing up in President Biden’s United States, where every town has become a border town, I fear it is only a matter of time until one of the families I represent in Middle Tennessee faces the same consequences of the Biden Administration’s open-border policies. I pray that day never comes. I also pray the president comes to his senses and ends the humanitarian crisis at the southern border his administration’s policies have caused.
The administration has already admitted they have the authority to restrict migrants’ ability to seek asylum at the border. It is past time they used that authority.
Until then, House Republicans like me will continue sounding the alarm and beating the drum to shed light on this administration’s open-border policies and blatant abuse of our laws. Border security is national security, and strong borders make strong countries, Mister Speaker.
With that, I yield back.
You can watch the full speech here.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://johnrose.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-rose-speaks-series-violent-crimes-involving-suspects-illegally-us