“Democrats have plenty of compassion for illegals. What about American citizens?”
WASHINGTON – Today,U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) once again spoke on the Senate floor about Americans killed by illegal aliens under Joe Biden’s open borders policies. Senator Tuberville called on the Biden Administration to secure the border and stop letting criminals into the country illegally. This is Senator Tuberville’s third speech on this issue in the last month, as more Americans have been victimized week after week.
Read Senator Tuberville’s speech below and viewed on YouTube or Rumble.
“Mr. President,
Here we go again. I cannot believe I am on the Senate floor, again, talking about more Americans dying at the hands of illegal aliens. I said I’d do this every week and give an update on the young people and people of our country that are dying at the hands of illegal aliens. Specifically, young people. Our kids are dying at the hands of Joe Biden’s immigration policies.
I was on the floor last week talking about the death of Laken Riley. [She was] a young woman who was running on the University of Georgia, minding her own business, when she was abducted and brutally beaten unrecognizably by an illegal alien from Venezuela.
Just a week ago, I came to the floor to talk about the death of Washington State Trooper Chris Gadd. He was on duty at a DUI checkpoint when Raul Benitez Santana, an illegal alien from Mexico, drunk behind the wheel, crashed into Trooper Gadd’s police cruiser. Trooper Gadd was just 27 years old.
There are so many other young people who need to be recognized and remembered. So many sad examples the deadly impact this Administration’s open border policies have had in this country. It is a shame.
In December, Travis Wolfe, a 12-year-old boy from Missouri, was riding with his parents when their car was struck head-on by another vehicle driving down the wrong side of the road at 70 miles-per-hour. The wrong side of the road, 70 miles-per-hour. Court documents revealed that the driver of the other car, that caused the crash into Travis Wolfe, is an illegal alien from Venezuela. Twelve-year-old Travis spent the last three months on life support. He died on March 6th.
His family hasn’t received an apology from Joe Biden. They’re not getting an apology from Secretary Mayorkas. They just buried a 12-year-old. Do my colleagues care? Do they care?
Last August in Ohio, a minivan driven by Hermanio Joseph, an illegal alien from Haiti, collided with a bus that was carrying 52 kids and headed to school for the very first day. Though he was from Haiti, Joseph illegally entered the country through the Southern Border. Twenty-six kids were hospitalized. Twenty-six. One child, 11-year-old Aiden Clark, was ejected from the bus and pronounced dead at the scene.
In Aiden’s obituary, his family wrote that he loved daily vegetable gardening with his dad, trampolining with his big sister, and always snuggling with his mom. Twelve years old. Aiden’s life was taken far too soon.
Travis Wolfe never gets to grow up. Trooper Gadd had a wife and a two-year old daughter. His daughter will never see her father again. Laken Riley will never become a nurse. She will never hang out with her friends again or celebrate a victory at the University of Georgia with her friends and family.
Losing a child is parent’s worst nightmare. We can’t possibly imagine what their families are going through. But we can work to prevent more deaths from occurring. We know what needs to be done. People in this body know what needs to be done. People on the other end of the building, in the House, know what needs to be done. The people in the White House know what needs to be done to protect these lives.
President Biden can authorize and use the laws that have been given to him from previous administrations – he can do that. He doesn’t need more laws. He can use the laws that have already been written. He can finish the border wall – which he stopped. [Joe Biden is] now is selling all of the materials down at the border to build this wall, that the American taxpayers have paid for, they’re selling it for 10 cents on the dollar. You can’t make this up. He can stop exploiting the Department of Homeland Security’s parole authority by letting in millions of people without any screening or processing. President Biden can stop supporting sanctuary cities, where local law enforcement officers are blocked from working with federal officers to get criminal aliens off the streets and out of our communities. He can bring order back to our country again. We are losing it, daily.
He can do these things. Right now. He doesn’t need another law. They are there. Just go by the laws. He himself suspended border wall. He authorized Homeland Security to continue paroling people, without consequences. He and his blue state supporters set up shelters in the middle of cities and suburbs to house illegal aliens indefinitely. Costing you, the American people, citizens, and taxpayers, billions of dollars. We have homeless [people] and veterans on the streets – not taken care of.
Hospitals, schools, and other community resources have been depleted with by being forced to provide for both U.S. citizens and the millions of illegal aliens crossing the border. U.S. citizens are paying for all of this, not the Biden Administration, the U.S. citizens. It’s their right. It’s embarrassing. Our country’s leadership must be reminded of their greatest responsibility – the safety and security of Americans. Number one responsibility. This administration could care less.
Let’s look at a recent example of a country prioritizing the safety of its citizens. What has the Dominican Republic been doing in response to gang violence and unrest in Haiti? Because Haitians are coming to the Dominican Republic, what are they doing? They secured their border.
The Biden administration established a parole program specifically for Haitians.
Our immigration policy priorities are completely misaligned and totally opposite of what they’re doing in the Dominican Republic. [It is] our duty to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. They are letting our guard down. So, states are taking matters into their own hands.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled that a new Texas law, which allows state and local law enforcement to arrest, detain, and deport illegal aliens, could go into effect while under review at a lower court level. But late last night, the Fifth-Circuit Court again blocked enforcement of the new Texas law, ahead of oral arguments. This is a crime. The Supreme Court has spoken.
So, while the Biden administration won’t arrest, detain, or deport illegal aliens, Texas would have been doing so. It’s shameful that a state had to take matters into their own hands like this.
It is embarrassing that President Biden’s Department of [Justice] sued Texas for implementing immigration laws, which they should have been implementing themselves. But they have a different agenda. They want more people in this country to vote for this administration. Americans are being killed by illegal aliens and the President simply cannot be bothered.
The blood of Laken Riley, Trooper Gadd, Travis Wolfe, Aiden Clark, and of so many other Americans, the blood is on his hands. The blood of Laken Riley, Trooper Gadd, Travis Wolfe, Aiden Clark, and of so many others – they won’t be forgotten. Democrats say their open borders policies are motivated by compassion. We have compassion for people coming in this country. Whose compassion? Democrats have plenty of compassion for illegals. What about American citizen. Taxpayers, the young people that are dying at the hands of these illegal aliens. They should not be here, but only are here because of this administration. But they don’t seem to have compassion for victims or any crime.
Joe Biden, last week, apologized that he called and illegal alien, “illegal,” in the State of the Union address. That sets the scene for everything. They could care less about the American citizen. They care more about people from other countries.
This is madness. This madness must end. We can’t wait until another election. We can’t let four or five more million people in [our country]. We can’t let hundreds of people die at the hands of these illegal aliens. Our children’s lives are at stake and our country is at stake.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.”
BACKGROUND
Senator Tuberville supports common-sense policies that strengthen our border and national security like building the wall and reinstating the Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the Remain in Mexico policy. Senator Tuberville has spoken about his concerns on the floor of the U.S. Senate and called on the Biden administration to act. In September 2023, Senator Tuberville helped introduce the Secure the Border Act of 2023, the Senate companion of the bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year, commonly known as H.R. 2.
During his first four years in the United States Senate, Senator Tuberville has made multiple visits to the southern border and worked on many legislative initiatives to secure the border, including giving law enforcement the tools needed to keep our communities safe and reforming immigration law to crack down on abuse and discourage illegal immigration.
Earlier this month, Senator Tuberville cosponsored the Laken Riley Act, legislation that would require U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest illegal aliens who commit theft, burglary, larceny, or shoplifting offenses and would mandate that these aliens are detained until they are removed from the United States so they cannot commit other crimes.
Senator Tuberville slammed Joe Biden ahead of his State of the Union speech for remaining silent about Americans who have been killed by illegal aliens. Following the tragic death of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley, Senator Tuberville delivered a floor speech urging Democrats to take action to prevent other Americans from being murdered at the hands of illegal aliens. He subsequently penned an op-ed concerning this same issue.
In December 2023, Senator Tuberville called on the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement to overhaul its harmful and deficient policies regarding the treatment of unaccompanied alien children in the United States.
In November 2023, Senator Tuberville cosponsored the Southern Border Transparency Act. The legislation would force DHS to increase its reporting of data about illegal immigrants entering the country, in turn providing greater transparency to the American people.
In August 2023, Senator Tuberville called on the Department of Defense to halt the sale of border wall construction materials after reports that the Department was moving quickly to dispose of the parts in violation of law.
In July 2023, Senator Tuberville introduced a joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act to strike down President Biden’s Circumvention of Lawful Pathways rule, which funnels illegal immigrants into unlawful parole programs that DHS established without Congress’ consent. This funneling effect has allowed, and encouraged, more people with weak or non-existent asylum claims to enter the U.S.
In May 2023, following the expiration of Title 42, Senator Tuberville reintroduced The Empowering Law Enforcement Act, which would grant state and local law enforcement inherent immigration enforcement authority to investigate, identify, apprehend, arrest, detain, or transfer an illegal immigrant who has entered the U.S. Additionally, this legislation would provide the DHS Secretary flexibility on how long a criminal alien may be detained, extending the current 180-day period to ensure violent criminals are not released back into communities.
In March 2023, Senator Tuberville introduced the Border Safety and Security Act to protect Americans by combatting the border crisis created by President Biden’s immigration policies. The legislation puts more responsibility on the DHS Secretary and gives increased authority to state attorneys general to hold DHS accountable if the Department fails in its duty to restrict entry and detain illegal immigrants.
Also in March 2023, Senator Tuberville cosponsored the Stopping Border Surges Act to address loopholes in our immigration system that encourage vulnerable immigrant populations to take dangerous, illegal paths of entry into the United States. The legislation includes reforms that would reduce unsustainable surges of illegal immigrants, strengthen our asylum process, eliminate the incentive to send children to the border, and dampen the exploitative power of coyotes and cartels.
In 2021, Senator Tuberville introduced his first piece of legislation as U.S. Senator, which would require DHS to issue notices to appear to every single person paroled or released into the U.S., after media reported on the border becoming so overrun that Customs and Border Protection officers were forced to quickly release illegal immigrants into U.S. communities with no follow up for a date in immigration court.
Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, and HELP Committees.
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