Rogers Urges Colleagues to Support Emergency Declaration

WASHINGTON House Homeland Security Ranking Member Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) today urged his colleagues to vote in support of President Trump s emergency declaration, emphasizing unprecedented demographic changes are creating a humanitarian crisis at our southwest border.

[S]mugglers tell vulnerable families that a child is like their visa to stay in the U.S. even if they turn themselves into Border Patrol. The smugglers propaganda is working, said Rogers in a speech on the House floor. These changing migrant flows force our law enforcement officers to act as paramedics, rather than enforcing the laws that Congress has passed.

Rogers remarks, as prepared for delivery:
Without a doubt, there is a crisis at the border. Changing demographics have created unprecedented challenges for the Border Patrol.

In the early 2000s, most illegal border crossers were young Mexican men. Our laws allowed us to quickly return them back to Mexico. Today that flow of Mexican men has been replaced with a mix of men, women, and children from Central American countries. Human traffickers are exploiting the loopholes in our laws and understand that our immigration system is broken.

These smugglers tell vulnerable families that a child is like their visa to stay in the US even if they turn themselves into Border Patrol. The smugglers propaganda is working.

Family apprehensions for Fiscal Year 2019 are already 572 percent higher than Fiscal Year 2013.

These traffickers do not care about the people they smuggle.

The result is that immigrants of all ages are arriving on our doorstep in terrible health. Border Patrol projects a 133 percent increase in migrants needing medical treatment after crossing the border over last year.

These changing migrant flows force our law enforcement officers to act as paramedics, rather than enforcing the laws that Congress has passed.

We need an all-of the-above approach to border security that includes manpower, 21st-century technology, and barriers. With this approach, we will deter human smugglers and others from crossing hundreds of miles of open desert with innocent children.

We know this approach works. In areas where we have built a wall system, such as Yuma, illegal traffic has plummeted by 95 percent.

Let s build on this success. I encourage my colleagues to stand by President Trump s decision to use executive authority to carry out this approach and keep America safe.

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Contact: Nicole Hager
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