August Pfluger: “I thank the chairman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of all Texans and all Americans whose lives have…”

“I thank the chairman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of all Texans and all Americans whose lives have been put at risk by the untenable crisis at our southern border. Let's just look at the numbers. In the 2 years that this President has been in office, there have been over 5 million encounters at the southern border, 1.4 million got-aways, and countless numbers of people who matched not only the terrorist watch list, but also criminal organizations. That totals nearly 6\1/2\ million people. To put that in perspective, that is bigger than over 33 States in the United States. Among those 5 million, our Border Patrol have caught nearly 200 known and suspected terrorists trying to cross into our country illegally. This should not only concern every American, but it also outrages Americans who want law and order and safety to be considered. What I am even more concerned about is: How many among the 1.4 million got-aways would match that list that we don't know about? This is something that I have been sounding the alarm bells for my entire time in Congress. It is something that, unfortunately, my Democrat colleagues have buried their heads in the sand and refused to address for the last 2 years. I could continue talking about the terrible numbers all day, about the 15,000 criminals arrested, the 14,000 pounds of fentanyl that have been seized, which, by the way, is enough to kill 3 billion people, and that is just in the last 6 months.…”