WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Tony Gonzales (TX-23) on Thursday joined House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA-23), House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (LA-01), House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (NY-21) and their Republican House colleagues for a press conference on the House steps to highlight the failed leadership of President Biden and Nancy Pelosi. Congressman Gonzales discussed the disastrous effects Biden’s open border policies have had on the country.
View Congressman Gonzales’ full remarks here.
TRANSCRIPT
“Nancy Pelosi is a lame duck speaker. Lame-duck Nancy wants Republicans to be distracted. She wants us to talk about this ridiculous mask mandate. She wants to divide us, but we are not going to be divided. We are going to be focused on one thing, securing our southern border, and helping the American people.
My district is over 40 percent of our southern border. This is what I am seeing every single day. Yesterday, my mayors, my judges, my sheriffs, my border patrol agents all reached out. Things are as bad as they have ever been, and they are only getting worse. And what do you have in El Paso? At Fort Bliss you have Secretary Mayorkas hiding the fact that COVID is spreading in these detention centers. Upward of 20 percent of these migrants have COVID. These children have COVID. I have 6 children. It is terrible to see the conditions that these young children are having to go through.
Meanwhile, over 1.1 million illegal immigrants have come through our southern border unvaccinated without masks and yet you are demanding that folks have a mask mandate. It is absolutely ludicrous. On the ground you are seeing historic catch and release numbers. We are seeing over 50,000 migrants being released into small communities. Small communities that can’t handle the influx of migrants from Haiti, from Venezuela, from Africa, from Asia, from across the world. They cannot handle it.
This does not need to fall on the border patrol. I want to be very clear. House Republicans stand firm for law and order. We stand firm with border patrol agents. They are doing God’s work securing our border. They are doing God’s work saving migrant lives. In the Big Bend Sector, they just put-up rescue beacons. This is the desert. This is the Chihuahuan Desert. Imagine being a migrant traveling 3 or 4 days in the hot desert sun and you come across a rescue beacon that saves your life.
Border patrol agents, sheriffs and local law enforcement are saving lives every day. This is the crisis that the Biden Administration coupled with Nancy Pelosi have created. It is pure and utter chaos. So, Republicans will not be distracted. We will constantly fight to secure our southern border.”