Jodey Arrington
06/09/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 06/09/2026 16:33
Arrington Leads Passage of Secure America Act, Fully Funds ICE and CBP
Washington, D.C. - Today, House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington (TX-19) issued the following statement after final passage of the Secure America Act, which fully funds U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP):
"The Secure America Act is headed to President Trump's desk, and our brave men and women who stand on the thin line to defend our sovereign borders and safety finally have the funding and certainty they need to do their jobs.
"For 76 days, Democrats held the Department of Homeland Security hostage. They walked away from the appropriations process, shut down Homeland Security operations, and used the safety of the American people as political leverage. Even today, every single House Democrat voted to defund ICE and Border Patrol.
"But Republicans, who were elected up and down the ballot by the American people to secure the border, enforce the law, and restore order, refused to allow this back-handed attempt to revive the chaos of Biden-Harris open border policies. The American people fundamentally rejected the chaos of the last four years. They elected Republicans for the promise of secure borders, safer communities, and restoring rule of law. The Secure America Act makes good on that promise." - Chairman Arrington.
Before today's vote, Chairman Arrington led debate on the House floor in support of the Secure America Act.
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Remarks as delivered:
If Republicans today were not willing to use budget reconciliation and depart from appropriations in order to pass a funding bill that would restore funding to ICE and CBP, what would happen is my Democrat colleagues would be able to achieve what many of them have held for a long time as their objective, and have publicly stated was their objective: That's to defund immigration enforcement, border enforcement, and abolish ICE.
That's effectively what would happen if Republicans didn't act, using budget reconciliation to fund ICE and CBP. That would send us back to the dark ages, to the four years of open borders and the unprecedented lawlessness, chaos, crime; with people and crime, gangs and drugs pouring into our communities, into our states throughout our entire country, jeopardizing the safety of the American people.
It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone at this point in this country, that that is the stated or unstated goal of some of my colleagues. Certainly, it is the well-articulated and cited objective of the left.
Quite frankly, this shutdown and obstruction is really the Democrat party pandering to the left. But what would happen is the same thing that happened for four years, when we had a commander-in-chief who refused to uphold his sacred oath to enforce the laws. He refused, with Democrat control of Congress and the White House, to enforce the laws and secure our sovereign border. [He] surrendered our sovereignty and safety to the paramilitary terrorist drug cartels on the other side of the border, who were glad to make more money off trafficking people than they did drugs.
As a result, we had a complete meltdown in states like Texas, who spent billions of dollars and were completely overwhelmed. It's almost unfathomable today to think about it, Madam Chair, because we have a daily apprehension number at 196, but the average illegal crossing or apprehension under the Biden-Harris administration was over 5,000.
I assure you, we would repeat that [number of illegal crossings and apprehensions under the Biden-Harris administration] and it would be disastrous if we didn't do the right thing. If we didn't govern our great country, if we didn't open the people's government and fund the important offices of ICE and CBP.
For 76 days, our Democrat colleagues held hostage the American people, [our] safety and security. They held hostage the hardworking people at the Department of Homeland Security. [But] it wasn't just ICE and CBP. We were completely dark at Homeland Security. We didn't have the safety protocols being administered by TSA. We didn't have our Coast Guardsmen keeping watch to prevent a terrorist attack at our ports. We didn't have CISA agents preventing an attack on our critical infrastructure, and of course, we didn't have ICE and CBP functioning to enforce laws and to secure our border.
That is the dysfunction we have been dealing with, and we just said enough is enough.
We were sent here by the American people, who gave President Trump an overwhelming victory. Every swing state, the popular vote, the electoral vote, gave us unified Republican leadership in Congress. The number one reason they did that was to restore the rule of law and to put the American people's safety and security first, and that's exactly what we're doing today, in spite of the obstruction.
Your granddad and my granddad taught us the same thing. If somebody tells you what they want to do and who they are, believe them. For years we've been hearing this incendiary and dangerous rhetoric that ICE needed to be defunded. Governor Tim Walz said that ICE officers are an actual threat. These are the people risking their lives to defend us, to protect us and our communities. Governor Pritzker said ICE was turning the country into Nazi Germany. Chuck Schumer said, ICE doesn't belong in our neighborhoods. Senator John Hickenlooper said that ICE was a reign of terror.
All of this, while the risks have increased because of the shutdown. We have an 8,000% increase in threats to the lives of our ICE agents and border patrol agents. A 1,300% increase in assaults. These are the dangerous games that my Democrat [colleagues] are playing - to obstruct the president so they can go brag as they pander to the left. The reality is, it's a de-facto defunding of law enforcement and abolishing of ICE. We will prevent that today, because I'm confident that my friends in the Republican conference will do the right thing and put the American people and their safety first.
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Jodey Arrington published this content on June 09, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on June 09, 2026 at 22:33 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]