Press Releases

Washington, D.C. – Today, House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington (TX-19) testified before the House Rules Committee in support of the Secure America Act to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Click HERE to watch.

Remarks as Delivered:

Democrats reneged on funding the government. They had one of the longest shutdowns ever, second to only the one prior to this over a COVID-era, fraud-ridden tax or subsidy expansion.

This was 76 days that the American people had to have a Homeland Security service and apparatus go dark. We didn't have our Coast Guardsmen to defend our ports against terrorist attacks. We couldn't enforce immigration laws and protect our border from drugs and people being trafficked into this country. We didn't have CISA agents being able to man their posts so that our critical infrastructure wasn't hacked. 

We can say that this is Republicans' attempt to make good on our good-faith negotiation the first time and to make sure that our brave law enforcement officers have the tools they need to do the job that Joe Biden and the Democrats, when they had total control of this town, absolutely didn't do. 

They abdicated the first and most important job of the federal government, which is to provide for the common defense. They didn't secure our border. They didn't enforce our laws. And we had a record deluge of drugs, people, crime, gangs, people on the terrorist watch list, people from countries of interest—record. 

And it was destroying the fabric of this country, and it was putting at great risk every neighborhood, in every community, in every city and state in this nation. 

This president, Donald J. Trump, was elected—in every swing state, popular and electoral vote—to clean up this mess. 

You have rogue cities and states that refuse to work with our law enforcement to actually enforce the law. They would rather break the law and harbor people who have broken the law to come to this country rather than work to identify the most hardened criminals so that we can deport them and we can get back to rule of law, regular order, peace, tranquility—the things the American people expect us to do up here for them, of all parties, across the board. 

So, yes, you're right. It is an all-Republican exercise, because I can't find a Democrat that would stave off a 22% tax hike, and I can't find one that's willing to enforce the law as it relates to immigration, secure the border, and actually take the criminal elements that have come into this country, like the people who came into this country illegally by the millions, and actually rid our great country of those threats. 

If we could, we wouldn't be here. 

All you have to do is listen to all the litany of statements that have been made. Governor Tim Walz says ICE officers are a threat to the public, ‘modern-day Gestapo.’ Governor Pritzker says that ICE is turning the country into Nazi Germany. They are the ‘reign of terror’—John Hickenlooper. Chuck Schumer said ICE doesn't belong in our neighborhoods. 

I mean, think about the incendiary rhetoric. Think about the seeds that have been sown of obstruction and resistance that have made it nearly impossible to do the job of cleaning up the streets of our cities because of what's happened over the last four years under the Biden administration and Democrat control. 

So, it's been impossible. 

And we're working better together because we're talking and coordinating. That's what Texas does. That's what Florida and other states do. We never had any of the problems of Minnesota. 

But I think it's reckless and irresponsible, and it's insulting to have these labels attached to our brave men and women who risk their lives to enforce the laws. We're going to give them the resources they need. 

Listen, what we're also going to do is [fund our law enforcement] for three years so that Democrats can't use [these men and women] as leverage, Homeland Security as leverage, and the American people's security as leverage in a shutdown again.

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