Opening Statement

Today, Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) delivered the following statement on the House Floor, as prepared, in opposition to H. Res. 1210, "Condemn Biden Border Crisis and Impact on Law Enforcement":

"M_. Speaker, my Republican colleagues like to talk a big game when it comes to immigration and border security.  They have a long list of grievances against the Biden Administration and a lot of tough talk about what should be done.  But when it comes to actually doing something about it—doing the hard work of legislating and finding meaningful solutions to real problems—that is where they come up empty.

So, instead, they resort to bringing up completely meaningless non-binding resolutions that allow them to shake their fist and to demonize immigrants for a little while, while accomplishing absolutely nothing. 

They can’t even manage to bring up a simple resolution honoring law enforcement officers during Police Week.  They have to turn everything into a broadside against the Biden Administration and an excuse to play politics on immigration.

So, for the fourth time in five months, Republicans are bringing forth an empty resolution that will do absolutely nothing to address the situation at the border or to repair our broken immigration system.

They have completely given up on developing solutions because Donald Trump told them that he wanted to preserve the issue for the upcoming election and he did not want them to solve the problem, so they walked away from a bipartisan deal negotiated by one of the most conservative members of the Senate. 

Instead, all they have to offer us is meaningless resolution after meaningless resolution, each one a useless rehash of the last.

Like the others, this one recycles misleading statistics and constructs a false narrative while accomplishing nothing.  That would be bad enough.  But it also includes language that is false and downright offensive, such as quote: “Democrat elected officials prioritize illegal alien criminals over citizens and legal residents of the United States.” 

That is an outrageous assertion that is beneath the dignity of this House.  We can have honest debates about policy, but questioning our loyalty to the American people is a disgusting slander and should be an embarrassment to anyone who supports this resolution.

M_. Speaker, we know that the best way to secure the border is to expand legal pathways and to adequately fund the immigration system.  We have not updated our legal immigration system in 30 years.  And the more broken the legal immigration system is, the more people will try to come to the border as the only means of entry.

And because Republicans refuse to support President Biden’s supplemental funding request, we don’t have the resources we need to secure the border and to provide additional support for communities receiving migrants. 

We need more Border Patrol agents, more immigration judges, and more asylum officers so that asylum cases can be heard in weeks, not years.  We need more CBP officers and new detection technology to counter fentanyl.  We need to modernize our ports of entry to combat the smuggling of people and drugs.

Unfortunately, when it comes to providing the resources necessary to address these critical needs, Republicans have consistently voted no. But if there’s a non-binding resolution full of demagoguery and fearmongering, then they are the first in line to support it.

M_. Speaker, we can do better.  We must do better.  I urge Members to oppose this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time."