U.S. Senator Katie Britt: ‘Senate Democrats and Joe Biden are putting the American people last’
WASHINGTON, D.C., December 11, 2023 – U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.), the Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee for the Senate Committee on Appropriations, last week joined a group of Republican colleagues at a press conference to reiterate the need for strong policy changes to end the unprecedented national security and humanitarian crisis at the United States’ southern border.
The press conference was led by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and included Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), John Thune (R-S.Dak.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).
Since President Biden took office, there have been more than 8 million illegal crossings at the southern border, including more 1.7 million known “gotaways.”
There were more than 12,000 encounters at the border on Tuesday alone, breaking the all-time daily record. Border crossings totaled more than 242,000 last month, another record-setting high for the month of November.
A transcript of Senator Britt’s remarks from the press conference this week follows:
Senator Graham, thank you for hosting this, thank you for continuing to bring attention to this. And thank you for all of the gentlemen behind me who continue to work diligently to actually secure our border.
That’s what the American people deserve, but unfortunately Joe Biden refuses to give that to them. You know, when we look at this emergency supplemental, when we look at this national security supplemental, when we look at what Joe Biden sent us, he put money for the border in there. But do you know what that was? It was stuff that continues to facilitate the mass migration that we see across our border. It was yet more of a magnet to draw more and more people here.
Now, I want to tell you who benefits from that, because we have both a national security and a humanitarian crisis on our border. The liberal media has decided to turn a blind eye to the fact that women are being raped on our border. That children are being recycled on our border. That we have laws that allow that to happen, and actually, that’s what some of these children are going through.
Guys, when are you going to actually call it like it is, and not like the liberal left wants you to? The reality is these policies are inhumane. You look at the national security threat of this. Y’all, we’ve gone through a week where we’ve had 10,000 come over the border, 10,000 come over the border, 12,000 – an all-time high – and to what Senator Thune said, Secretary Jeh Johnson under President Obama said 1,000 a day would be a crisis. We’re hitting 12 (12,000).
We must secure our border for the safety and security of the American people. I don’t want to sit across from another momma who lost their child to fentanyl poisoning. I don’t want to look out and see the travesty that occurs as a result of this. And at the end of the day when we’re putting policies in place to ensure that we have national security, the first among all of these must be the border.
And y’all need to wake up. Because Senator Graham asked the questions yesterday. He asked Director (Chris) Wray about this. This is the response (from Director Wray), he said ‘I’ve never seen a time where all the threats or so many of the threats are all elevated all at exactly the same time.’ He followed up with ‘I see blinking lights everywhere I turn.’ He said ‘a heightened threat environment from foreign terrorist organizations for a whole host of reasons and obviously their ability to exploit any port of entry, including our southwest border.’
Senate Democrats and Joe Biden are putting the American people last. We need to make sure we create deterrents. We need to make sure we create safety. And we must do more for the people here at home. They deserve it, and that is exactly what we are going to continue to fight for.
Video of the full press conference can be found here.
Senator Britt has made border security and the safety of American children, families, and communities a top focus during her first eleven months in office. Recently, she joined Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and 16 colleagues in introducing the Preventing the Recycling of Immigrants is Necessary for Trafficking Suspension (PRINTS) Act. Senator Britt earlier this year introduced a robust package of four pieces of legislation and has cosponsored an additional 14 related to the topic, including Senator John Cornyn’s (R-Texas) Southern Border Transparency Act and joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act to strike down President Biden’s Circumvention of Lawful Pathways rule; Senator Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) Secure the Border Act and Stop Dangerous Sanctuary Cities Act; Senator Marsha Blackburn’s (R-Tenn.) Stop Taxpayer Funding of Traffickers Act; Senator Chuck Grassley’s (R-Iowa) Immigration Parole Reform Act of 2023 and Accountability Through Electronic Verification Act; Senator Ted Budd’s (R-N.C.) Build the Wall Now Act; Senator Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) No Coyote Cash Act and Felony Murder for Deadly Fentanyl Distribution Act; Senator Mike Lee’s (R-Utah) Stopping Border Surges Act; Senator Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) Border Safety and Security Act; Senator John Kennedy’s (R-La.) Fairness in Fentanyl Sentencing Act of 2023; and Senator Tim Scott’s (R-S.C.) FEND Off Fentanyl Act.
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High quality video of Senator Britt’s remarks can be downloaded for media usage here.
