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Rogers: Democrats Chose to Appease the Radical Left and Reject Bipartisan Consensus

June 25, 2019

Rogers: Democrats Chose to Appease the Radical Left and Reject Bipartisan Consensus

Top Homeland Republican Joins House Republican Leadership to Demand Action on Border Crisis

[CLICK HERE to watch Rogers remarks]

WASHINGTON – Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) joined House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), and Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) today to highlight the humanitarian crisis at the southwest border and House Democrats unwillingness to work in a bipartisan manner to address it.

Conditions on Border are Beyond a Crisis:
This is an enormous and growing humanitarian crisis at the border. In the last three months, we’ve had in excess of a hundred thousand migrants come across our border. In March, it was 104,000. In April, it was 109,000. In May it was 140,000…We have a capacity in our CBP processing centers of 4,000 – we now have 20,000 people in those facilities. This has got to be addressed.

Months of Democrat Inaction:
We have put forth a bill – my bill – that was the president’s request. [DHS and HHS] told us what they needed for humanitarian relief. It’s been rejected – [Democrats] won’t even let us vote on it – 17 times.

More Politics and Poison Pills:  
Unfortunately, the bill that the Democrats are bringing to the floor is full of political poison pills. They don’t want this situation solved. One of the provisions they put in [the bill] prohibits sending DoD resources down to the border to supplement CBP. They prevent us from paying ICE agents overtime. They prevent us from taking other DHS personnel like FEMA or TSA people that volunteer and letting them go down to the border…in administrative roles to free up agents to go and do their jobs.

A Path Forward:
[Democrats] need to at least compromise with the Senate bill. It’s not our bill – it’s not [exactly] what we want, but it’s a compromise…We need to be able to provide some relief for this horrible situation down at the border.

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