Chairman Arrington Urges Colleagues to Fund Homeland Security

Chairman Arrington Urges Colleagues to Fund Homeland Security

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, House Budget Committee Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) delivered the following remarks on the House floor urging the passage of S.Con.Res. 33, which unlocks reconciliation to fully fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).

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Remarks as delivered:

"Mr. Speaker, we're here because my Democrat colleagues have shut the United States Department of Homeland Security down for now 74 days. They have held the American people hostage and have imperiled the safety of every citizen of this country for their ridiculous and even dangerous demands.

"They're not serious. We had a four corners agreement between Republicans and Democrats in the House and the Senate, they reneged. And if it weren't for President Trump's intervention, we would have the hard-working public servants at the Department of Homeland Security going 100 days without pay.

"Ask me, Mr. Speaker, how many days my Democrat colleagues have gone without pay? How long they would tolerate going without pay?

"Mr. Speaker, this isn't just about the inconvenience of long lines at airports. This is an unprecedented national security and public safety crisis; and this is the moment we take the keys from the kids; and we say no more of this nonsense; and we open up the People's Government; and we restore the safety and security of the American people.

"Now, you'll hear my colleagues, no doubt, say, if we could just agree on some commonsense reforms, we would have opened up the Department of Homeland Security. We would have been glad to work with you. But let's think about these 'commonsense reforms,' to require this administration to get a judicial warrant to expel criminal aliens from our country.

"There is not a Democrat or Republican former commander in chief that would ever find that acceptable, because, in fact, these criminal aliens have had their day in immigration court, and they have their orders to be expelled because they are not here with cause. They are here with threat to my family, and to my community, and to my great state of Texas, and to this beloved country of ours. And it's unacceptable, but they would effectively stop all deportations.

"But we had an election after four years of lawlessness and chaos at the southern-border, crime, criminals, and all kinds of criminal elements and drugs that killed more people than the entire Vietnam War in one year. This president was elected to restore law and order-rule of law-in this great civil society of ours… That's the mandate they gave us, along with unified Republican leadership.

"But there's been one wall of obstruction after another for this president and this administration. That's one example of their ridiculous, absurd, unserious demands.

"The other one is, and I heard this at the Rules Committee, and I couldn't believe my ears… my Democrat colleague repeatedly referred to our honorable ICE and CBP agents as 'masked thugs.'

"When evil is called good and good is called evil. You remember that quote? You remember that admonition? These are the days.

"Mr. Speaker, we've given 16 chances in all-opportunities to vote to turn this government of the people back on and support our ICE and CBP agents, to protect our ports by funding our guardsmen. To protect the CISA agents, to protect our critical infrastructure while cyber-attacks are on the rise, and to resource our FEMA agency to be ready to respond to our citizens in a natural disaster. 16 times they said no. And here we are, demasking our agents, calling them masked thugs.

"8,000% increase, Mr. Speaker, in death threats to these gentlemen and gentle ladies, who wear the badge, who wear the uniform, who protect the thin blue line, a 1,300% increase in assaults. 3,200% increase in vehicular assaults…We have cartel members who have bounties of tens of thousands of dollars on their heads, and we have masked leftist, radical, violent folks who are assaulting them in the streets while they're trying to do their dangerous job.

"You want to know why we're here, Mr. Speaker? You want to know why we're here, the American people? That's why we're here.

"And we say: 'enough is enough.' And today we put forward this budget resolution with reconciliation instructions to fund the people's Homeland Security to protect our citizens and to do right by these hard-working, God-fearing public servants that go to work every day not knowing if they're going to come home."