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Speech in Opposition to H.R. 6 (Amnesty for Illegal Aliens)

June 4, 2019
Speeches
Congressman McClintock delivered the following remarks today on the House floor in opposition to H.R. 6:
 
Speech in Opposition to H.R. 6
June 4, 2019
 
M. Speaker:
 
As we dither and posture and virtue-signal here today, our southern border is collapsing. The Border Patrol warns that before this year is out, they will have apprehended over one million illegal aliens making a mockery of our sovereignty and our asylum laws. Unless Congress acts, those illegals will have to be released into our country. That's the population of Atlanta and Sacramento COMBINED.
 
Instead of taking the simple measures necessary to secure our borders and reserve our asylum laws for the truly persecuted, the House meets today to grant blanket amnesty to roughly 2 ½ million illegal aliens, encouraging millions more that they, too, can violate our borders with impunity.
 
The Democrats have long advocated for providing free services for illegals: free health care, legal counsel, education, food and housing – all paid by American taxpayers. They deny they support illegal immigration, yet they heap rewards on those who illegally immigrate.
Many have gone so far as to advocate abolishing the agencies that defend our borders. The Democrats long ago ceased to call illegal immigration for what it is – illegal. They have supported allowing illegal aliens to vote in our elections; and opposed visa tracking of foreign nationals entering our country. They have even enacted sanctuary laws that require dangerous criminal illegal aliens to be released back into our communities rather than be deported as federal law requires.



The tragedy is that hundreds of thousands of children have been brought here illegally, in effect stranded without a country. They have no legal status here and little familiarity with their native country. There is broad support to remedy this situation. But we cannot do this until we first fully secure our border and fully enforce our immigration laws. Otherwise, we simply encourage more children to be brought here illegally, producing yet another generation who will come to us in a few years with the same demands that we hear today.
We could address both issues right now. If full funding of the border wall and reform of our asylum laws were combined with legalizing the status of children who were brought here and raised here through no fault of their own, that bill could become law in a matter of days. Within days we could bring these young people out of legal limbo AND restore the integrity of our borders. Within days.
But by forcing a completely partisan and one-sided approach, the Democrats end up with nothing.
This is not legislating; it is farce. And history is screaming this warning: nations that cannot or will not secure their borders aren't around very long. Let that not be the epitaph of the American Republic.