Beto O'Rourke: “Later this evening, perhaps early tomorrow morning, this body will be voting on a series of appropriations measures to…”

“Later this evening, perhaps early tomorrow morning, this body will be voting on a series of appropriations measures to fund our armed services and the VA. Tacked on to that, at the whim of the chairman of the Rules Committee, in what I can only describe as the most undemocratic, unrepresentative fashion, is a provision to fund a border wall between the United States and the country of Mexico to the tune of $1.6 billion, a mere down payment on total construction costs which are estimated to be over $20 billion. I think it is important, Mr. Speaker, that we keep in mind some very basic facts; the first being that the border between the United States and Mexico has never been safer or more secure. {time} 1045 Last year and the year before, we saw record-low levels of northbound apprehensions from Mexico. If you look at where we were in the year 2000, you had 1.6 million apprehensions from Mexico. Last year, you had a little over 400,000. Do you know who so many of those apprehensions were? They were kids, young families, scared and frightened, leaving the most horrific brutality that we can imagine from the Northern Triangle countries of Central America, literally fleeing for their lives to this country, which is comprised of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, and is the very foundation of our success. Apparently, this is who we are trying to wall off and protect ourselves from with this $1.6 billion boondoggle.…”