On the recordMarch 3, 2016
Mr. Speaker, I want to give a little history about the efforts of the Democratic Party to secure our Southern border. We had an immigration bill last session. In that bill that passed the Senate with bipartisan support--not only every Democrat, but also many Republicans, like John McCain and Marco Rubio--we had $40 billion to secure our Southern border. Talk about a secure wall--security, making sure that illegal products and illegal people do not cross across that border--we had that. Thanks to the Republicans' failure to take action in this body, the House of Representatives, and simply pass the Senate bill, there is still no security on the Southern border. There are people, illegal drugs, and illegal products sneaking across every day because this body hasn't acted. Now, it is pie in the sky to think that some other country is going to pay for a wall to protect America. It isn't going to happen. What we did is we actually had fines for people who were here illegally. So people who are here illegally were actually the very ones who contributed money back into our coffers to help secure our Southern border, not to mention the additional economic benefit and taxes that they would pay going forward. It is time to act on immigration and secure our border. ____________________





