Jodey Arrington: “I thank the gentleman from North Carolina, Representative Walker, for his service and his leadership, not just to this…”

“I thank the gentleman from North Carolina, Representative Walker, for his service and his leadership, not just to this body, but myself personally. He is a spiritual leader and mentor for so many. We have a lot of ways to measure success in life and in this job, but I can tell you, one of them is to maintain a healthy relationship with our Lord and savior, and I want to thank him publicly. This is a serious issue, and it is one that we in Texas have a lot of knowledge about and experience with, unfortunately, and that is border security. It is also a humanitarian crisis. Mr. Speaker, we are on the front lines, and we see the drugs, gangs, and criminal activity pouring into the great State of Texas, not just along the impact zone immediately across from the southern border, but in communities in west Texas, in the 19th Congressional District, and not just my population center, but in rural communities as well. Here is a statistic that is pretty startling. Since 2011, 180,000 illegal immigrants were charged in the great State of Texas with 290,000 crimes. I talked to local law enforcement officers, sheriffs, police chiefs, and others in my communities over the last few weeks. They are telling me that the volume of drugs coming into our communities is off the charts and that the crime has increased exponentially--not just property crime, but violent crime.…”