Boyle Opening Statement at Hearing on "The Cost of the Border Crisis"
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Pennsylvania Congressman Brendan F. Boyle, Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, delivered opening remarks at a Budget Committee hearing on “The Cost of the Border Crisis.” |
Ranking Member Boyle’s remarks as delivered:
Thank you Mr. Chairman, and like you, I thank the witnesses for taking time to be here today out of any of your busy schedules. I want to do a few things in my opening remarks.
First is to make clear how proud I am that we are, as President Kennedy once wrote in his book, a nation of immigrants.
More than 90 percent of the American people, myself included, are descended of immigrants. In my case, it's my father who came here from Ireland when he was 19 years old, looking for economic opportunity, as well as my mother's parents, who sailed here on the SS George Washington right after the Second World War.
Their story is like millions and millions of American families who worked hard, played by the rules, and in doing so were able to provide more opportunities for their children then they had themselves.
My family's been able to live the American dream. And you know, if you go back to the very beginning of the nation, almost 250 years ago in my district at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, if at that time you had said we're going to build a new country, but we're not going to build it of the elite or the affluent of Europe or any great power. No, this new country on this continent is going to be comprised by those who are on the bottom rungs of the ladder in societies where they come from. And we're also going to add on to that slavery and build the nation with slaves and then the descendants of slaves. And then oh, by the way, that nation is going to go on to become the wealthiest, most powerful and greatest nation on the history of the planet.
Would you really have believed if one of our founders said that to you in the late 18th century? But that's who we are as Americans. And I know there is a lot of rhetoric going around right now about immigrants and I'm not accusing the Chair of participating in this, but there are some who irresponsibly delve into the bashing of immigrants.
Unfortunately, that has also been around as long as the American republic. Well, it was wrong then and is wrong now. So to be clear, I am proud that we are a nation of immigrants. As Congressional Budget Office has verified, immigration will add $7 trillion to our economy and lead to an additional $1 trillion in tax revenue over the next decade. Those countries and economies that are shrinking, particularly in Western Europe, wish they had the benefit of America's immigrants. It's sometimes said that America has an immigration problem. The countries that have an immigration problem are those countries to which no one wants to go. America does not have an immigration problem.
We do, however, let me be clear, currently have a real challenge on our southern border. No, this did not begin in this administration or the last several years. It actually began about 20 years ago during the George W. Bush administration. 2004, 2005 is when we first began to see a real surge at the southern border.
Our peak year before COVID was 2019, a fact that some like to forget. Of course, once we hit March 2020, we had a dramatic drop of crossings at our southern border. Once the pandemic ended and America's economic, robust economy returned, we have seen that surge reoccur. So we admit there is bipartisan agreement, I think widespread agreement, across America: we have a particular problem at our southern border of illegal crossings.
Now, some months ago, actually last September, President Biden and Senate Democrats worked with Senate Republicans, and over months of months of negotiations that were very difficult, in good faith, a bipartisan agreement was reached.
It would have been the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border in two generations. It would have provided $20 billion for border security, hired 1500 new CBP officers and funded more than 100 additional immigration judges. That way, those claiming asylum could have had their cases heard right there, and the overwhelming majority of asylum cases tend to be rejected and in those cases those folks would have been returned to their country of origin.
It also would have provided the machinery that we need for better detection of fentanyl at ports of entry, a specific concern of mine. It would have given the president new authority to go after fentanyl traffickers, some of the worst of the worst. And it would have expanded legal pathways for migrants to work and support their families, those who are following the rules.
But what happened? Unfortunately, more than a few Republicans were more concerned with doing Donald Trump's bidding than they were concerned about fixing the problem. Donald Trump didn't want the border fixed because he wanted the issue. And don't take my word for it, let's see what the leader of the Senate Republicans said.
And I will quote him, that's Mitch McConnell, he said, “Trump didn't seem to want us to do anything at all.” Another Republican Senator said Trump, quote, “Doesn't want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it.”
So to quickly recap, step one, Republicans demanded a border deal. Step two, they negotiated a border deal. Step three, when Trump ordered them to, they killed that border deal. And finally, step four, here we are holding a hearing about how bad the border is.
It is time to stop playing politics with this very important issue. Let's actually finally get back to a bipartisan solution to fix this American challenge.
And with that, I yield back. ### |