'What A Waste Of Time': Jerry Nadler Slams Latest GOP-Backed Resolution Condemning Border Policies

7 months ago

During debate on the House floor, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) decried Republicans' latest resolution to condemn current border policy.

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Transcript

00:00Mr. Speaker, this country is facing real problems. There's an erosion of trust in

00:05our government and institutions. The right to bodily autonomy is under attack

00:09across the nation. The state of Maryland needs assistance in rebuilding the

00:13Francis Scott Key Bridge so that the Port of Baltimore, whose economic impact

00:18touches communities across the country, can reopen. And our immigration system

00:23cannot function because Congress has failed to reform it for over 30 years.

00:28But instead of responding to these problems, House Republicans are wasting

00:32our time yet again on another meaningless immigration resolution. At Donald Trump's

00:38direction, they refuse to work towards solutions for our broken immigration

00:42system, so instead all they have to offer is a bunch of empty rhetoric. This

00:48resolution, like the others we have considered in recent months, will do

00:52nothing to solve the situation at the border. Not a single dollar will go to

00:56help our law enforcement agents at the border as a result of this resolution.

01:00Not a single person will be denied unlawful entry to this country as a

01:05result of this resolution. Not a single community will be made safer as a result

01:10of this resolution. This resolution is nothing more than a highlight reel of

01:15the dubious talking points in immigration that we have heard over and

01:18over from Republicans since President Biden was sworn into office. It is the

01:23same legislating by press release that we have become accustomed to in this

01:27historically unproductive Congress. The resolution itself is simply a rehash of

01:33the resolution we passed a few weeks ago. Republicans are so out of ideas that it

01:38even has the same exact title and much of the same content as the last

01:43resolution. That resolution listed all the ways that President Biden

01:47supposedly could secure the border and essentially asked the administration to

01:51reverse every policy it has implemented on immigration even though we knew know

01:56that doing so would not be effective. Today's resolution simply lists most of

02:01those policies again and this time it just condemns the administration. What a

02:06waste of time. It's important to remember how we got here. Earlier this year,

02:12earlier this Congress, House Republicans passed their partisan cruel and

02:17unworkable border bill, H.R. 2. Republicans spent the year saying that

02:21H.R. 2 is the only way to secure the border even though they know that it

02:26cannot become law having twice passed to fail that having twice having failed

02:31twice to pass the Senate receiving just 32 votes earlier this year. Then they

02:37insisted that the price of helping to protect Ukraine against Russian

02:41aggression was enacting harsh border enforcement legislation. Senate

02:46Republicans even managed to convince some Democrats to agree on a very harsh

02:51border bill in the Senate, a bill that Minority Leader McConnell called the

02:54toughest border bill in 30 years. But Republicans could not take yes for an

02:59answer. Donald Trump said that he didn't want to do anything that might actually

03:03help at the border in an election year because he wants immigration as a

03:07campaign issue. Other Republicans quickly agreed. So folding to the cult of Donald

03:13Trump, Speaker Johnson declared the bill dead on arrival in the House with the

03:18rest of the Republican conference quickly falling in line. Republicans

03:22showed clearly what Democrats have been saying over and over again, that they

03:25don't want to do anything that would really help address our broken

03:28immigration system. They clearly have given up. Instead of solving the problem,

03:34Republicans merely want to continue to weaponize the border as a political issue

03:38for the election year with pointless votes on meaningless resolutions that

03:42accomplish nothing and are full of misleading information. So let's review

03:47the facts once again. The resolution complains that the Biden administration

03:51is not removing enough people. However, the administration is removing people at

03:56a very significant pace and in ways that I am concerned may present some due

04:00process violations. Since the end of Title 42 last May, the Biden

04:04administration has removed or returned over 630,000 individuals and members of

04:11family units, just since last May. This is more than the number of people

04:15removed or returned in all of fiscal year 2019 under the Trump administration.

04:20The resolution also alleges that the Biden administration is violating the

04:25mandatory detention statutes by not detaining enough people. However, no

04:29administration, including the Trump administration, has ever been able to

04:34comply with those statutes because no Congress has ever appropriated the

04:38extraordinary levels of funding such compliance would require. To detain

04:47everyone that the law requires to be held in mandatory detention would

04:51require Congress to appropriate over 35 billion dollars a year, a number ten

04:56times higher than what Congress appropriated this year or than President

05:00Trump ever requested for detention. And when Democrats have proposed giving DHS

05:06the resources it needs to do its job, the Republicans have consistently said

05:10no. We need to work together to address our broken immigration system. Enforcement

05:16alone cannot fix it. We know this because an enforcement-only approach has

05:20largely failed for three decades. We need to update our immigration system so that

05:25it meets the needs of our country. We need a balanced bipartisan approach that

05:30expands lawful pathways. This will help relieve pressure on the border and allow

05:34people to come to this country in an orderly and efficient way. But

05:38Republicans don't want to engage in real legislating that might actually solve

05:42problems and deliver meaningful reform. They want to continue to demagogue and

05:47fearmonger with meaningless resolutions containing nothing but empty rhetoric

05:52designed to score cheap political points. I urge my colleagues to oppose this

05:56resolution and I reserve the balance of my time.

'What A Waste Of Time': Jerry Nadler Slams Latest GOP-Backed Resolution Condemning Border Policies

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