WASHINGTON, DC—U.S. Representative John Rose (TN-06) spoke on the House Floor Wednesday in opposition to a recently-released immigration and foreign aid proposal, backed by a group of U.S. Senators.
The full remarks, as prepared for delivery, is below:
Madam Speaker, let me be clear: the President has the existing authority to close the southern border today! No act of Congress is necessary. No new law is needed.
Section 212 of the Immigration and National Act authorizes the president “to suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens” whose entry he “finds ... would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.”
His refusal to do so signals his unwillingness to secure our border despite Customs and Border Protection reporting more than 8 million illegal encounters nationwide—including 361 on the terrorist watch list—since President Biden took office.
Let’s be honest with the American people, Madam Speaker. If the president seriously thought an act by Congress was necessary to secure the border and he was actually willing to do so, why didn’t he do it when Democrats controlled both the House and Senate?
The answer is simple: it would go against the White House’s policy and desire to keep our borders open and let in millions of people illegally. As a candidate, President Biden said it multiple times on the campaign trail. This isn’t a policy failure; it is the policy of President Biden.
Now that it’s an election year and the majority of Americans believe the situation at the southern border is a crisis, according to a recent CBS News poll, President Biden is attempting to put a band-aid on a bullet wound. Except, attached to that band-aid are multiple unnecessary and costly items that will only make matters worse.
The Senate Border bill isn’t a border bill—it’s an immigration bill that legitimizes President Biden’s open border policies and steals money from our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
On behalf of all sensible Tennesseans whom I represent, I could not, in good faith, vote for this bill in its current form. We must enact serious and stringent border security reforms like the ones passed in H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act. Throwing money at the problem won’t solve it—it will only make matters worse.
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-urges-colleagues-reject-senate-immigration-proposal