WASHINGTON D.C.— Today, House Committee on Homeland Security member Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) delivered the following remarks during a House Committee on Rules hearing considering her bill, H.R. 275, the “Special Interest Alien Reporting Act of 2025.” H.R. 275 was advanced out of the Committee in April.

Watch Rep. Greene’s remarks here and read them below.

I’m here today to speak in favor of my bill, the “Special Interest Alien Reporting Act of 2025,” an essential piece of border security transparency legislation. My bill would require the Department of Homeland Security to publicly release monthly reports on the number of Special Interest Aliens encountered, their countries of origin, and where they were encountered. A Special Interest Alien, or SIA, is a non-U.S. person who, based on a DHS analysis of travel patterns, may pose a national security risk to the United States or its interest. 

Currently, DHS does not report on this data. Instead, we have been left only with random, incomplete announcements of moment in time, numbers by DHS officials or leaks to the media. The Biden-Harris administration’s disastrous policies place the United States in an extremely vulnerable national security position over the past four years. Customs and Border Protection faced an unprecedented number of Special Interest Aliens from 26 countries that the Department of Homeland Security has determined pose the greatest national security and counterintelligence threats. 

Those encountered included individuals from adversarial nations, including the People’s Republic of China, Iran, Afghanistan, and Syria. The Biden-Harris administration’s intentional disregard for our laws and breakdown of national security resulted in U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountering over 1.7 million special interest aliens, a staggering number. Many of these individuals were swiftly processed and released into the interior under the Biden-Harris administration’s catch and release policies. 

Given ongoing events in the Middle East, this legislation is essential for Congress to conduct congressional oversight of the executive branch––given the fact that we have been warned of a potential attack on our homeland by Iran or their terrorist proxies. 

The American people should have transparency of Special Interest Aliens coming across our border, or who did come across our border the last four years during the Biden-Harris administration. The Border Patrol apprehended over 1,500 Iranian nationals illegally crossing the Southwest border between ports of entry. Of those, Biden and Harris admitted 729. That’s almost half of those from Iran into the United States––and we have no idea how many are still at large today. And guess what? We only just now are getting that number because CBP just disclosed it to Fox News’ Bill Melugin, who posted it on his social media. That’s not how this should work. 

With Iran threatening Americans with retaliatory attacks on our homeland, President Biden and Vice President Harris, his border czar, created an opportunity for our adversaries to gain access to our nation and wreak havoc when called upon. The Biden-Harris administration welcomed these potential national security risks into our country, including through illegal parole programs they started, such as the CBP One app, to facilitate their quick release into the United States. 

Parents don’t let bad guys, or potentially bad guys, into their homes with their children. These people should have never been released into our country under Biden and Harris. Our sovereign borders became revolving doors for illegal aliens, including an untold number of bad actors intent on causing mayhem and harm to innocent people. 

CBP already publicly reports statistics relating to individuals on the Terrorist Screening Data Set who attempt to illegally cross our borders, but they do not release statistics on special interest aliens. The American people deserve to see the data similar to the information on the Terrorist Screening Data Set. Releasing encounter statistics on Special Interest Aliens would not include sensitive information, but general encounter information, which increases the transparency and accountability that are critical to the health of our constitutional Republic. After all, it’s the American people that pay for the government, because they’re the taxpayers. They deserve to know.

The legislation would show the American people the contrast between open borders and secure borders. It would require DHS to publish the monthly SIA numbers going all the way back to early 2021 when Biden and Harris took office. They will also provide Congress with necessary context to conduct oversight of future administrations. 

I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this important piece of legislation to increase our national security and transparency for the American people, whom we all swore an oath to serve and protect.

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