Jerry Nadler: “I am prepared to close, and I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, the last few speakers on the Republican…”

“I am prepared to close, and I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, the last few speakers on the Republican side spent most of their time not addressing this bill but addressing the general crisis at our southern border. The fact is there is a crisis. We all know that. The fact is that one of the major problems--and Republicans say this all the time, and they are right--is catch and release. Someone is caught or more usually turns themselves in to a Border Patrol officer, claims asylum, and is given a court date 4 years, 5 years down the road. Why? Because we do not have enough asylum officers. We do not have enough asylum judges. President Biden requested $14 billion to increase the number of Border Patrol men and women and to increase the number of asylum judges and immigration judges so that you wouldn't have catch and release; so that people who claimed asylum would have their cases adjudicated in weeks, not in years. Those who are entitled to asylum would be admitted to the country and could work and those who are not could be swiftly removed, deported from the country. Do our Republican colleagues want to do that? No. They don't want to give the President the means of alleviating this problem. They want a campaign issue, and they are very open about it.…”