Congressman Mo Brooks (AL-05) on Tuesday showed once again why he is known as one of the nation’s leading border security advocates, coming out against a Democratic proposal and saying, “In sum, Socialist Democrats’ solutions are a combination of open-borders and giving illegal aliens free ‘Welcome’ mats, free health care, free ‘Happy Meals,’ free clothing, free shelter, and free transportation into America … all at American taxpayer expense.”
Brooks’ remarks came in a statement announcing his opposition to H.R. 3401, which is the bill drafted by Democrats that is supposed to be emergency supplemental appropriations legislation to boost the security of the nation’s southern border and help deal with the humanitarian crisis caused by the recent massive influx of asylum seekers and illegal aliens into the country.
However, according to Brooks and other Republicans, H.R. 3401 as currently written is nothing more than a “seriously flawed” “open borders bill” that incentivizes illegal behavior that is costly to the American taxpayer while doing little to nothing to address security problems.
“Unprecedented illegal alien tsunamis are swamping Customs and Border Patrol resources on America’s porous southern border,” Brooks said.
“Why is the problem so bad? Because socialist Democrats financially reward illegal aliens whose first step on American soil is to spit on our Constitution and violate American laws,” he continued.
Remainder of Brooks’ statement as follows:
The result of Socialist Democrats’ policies are a humanitarian and border security crisis. In the first half of Fiscal Year 2019, the number of illegal alien family units captured by Border Patrol roughly tripled over the previous year! Worse yet, the number of captured illegal aliens topped 100,000 in each of March and April. Further, the numbers of illegal alien caravans have skyrocketed from two in FY 2017, to 13 in FY 2018, to 104 large illegal alien caravans of 100 or more individuals— totaling 17,242 illegal alien captures— in just the first six months of FY 2019.
Nearly two months ago, the Trump Administration requested additional resources from Congress to handle the massive illegal alien influx. After letting the crisis worsen and repeatedly blocking sane attempts to substantively address the crisis, open-borders Socialist Democrats have offered a seriously flawed appropriations bill. Sadly, the bill is partisan, underfunds necessary border security measures, and inserts open-borders policy provisions that endanger and risk American lives. The socialist Democrat open-borders position is perfectly encapsulated by Nancy Pelosi’s recent comment, “…but in terms of interior enforcement, what is the purpose? What is the point?”
The open-borders bill lacks the necessary funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention beds. Without enough detention beds, ICE is left with no choice but to turn illegal aliens loose in America. By opposing detention beds, open-borders lawmakers declare that illegal aliens— including those who skip immigration court hearings or commit additional crimes— should be allowed to remain in our country indefinitely.
What’s worse, the open-borders bill doesn’t provide desperately needed funding for the equipment and courtroom space necessary to quickly adjudicate illegal alien hearings and the bill fails to provide any funding for Defense Department border security operations. What does the open-borders bill fund instead? $100 million for lawyers to help illegal aliens subvert America’s laws, $60 million for FEMA (the agency meant to help American citizens recover from natural disasters) for “food and shelter,” $19.95 million for “medical assets for high-risk support,” and $92 million for ‘consumables’(i.e. food).
By putting forth this seriously flawed bill, socialist Democrats further demonstrate their complete commitment to open-borders. Thankfully, President Trump has promised to veto the open-borders bill.
The Democratic partisanship in the House bill stands in stark contrast to the Senate’s current version of the supplemental appropriations legislation, which was chiefly negotiated by Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) and is considered a constructive compromise between Republicans and Democrats.
Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
