Congressman August Pfluger (TX-11) proudly voted to pass H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act of 2023, House Republicans’ solution to end the unprecedented border crisis created by President Biden by fulfilling their promises to restore sanctity, safety, and security at our borders.

Congressman Pfluger helped author H.R. 2, which will restart construction of the border wall, deploy much-needed technology improvements, increase the number of Border Patrol agents and give them well-deserved bonuses, require transparency regarding illegal crossings from the Department of Homeland Security, strengthen current law to protect unaccompanied children from human trafficking, end catch and release, and end abuse of executive immigration authority.

Pfluger spoke on the House Floor in support of the legislation. Watch the full remarks here or read highlights and excerpts below.

“I rise today in support of Texans and all Americans whose lives are being put at risk by the untenable crisis at our southern border.
 
Let’s look at the numbers. In the two years that this president has been in office, there have been over 5 million encounters at the southern border and at least 1.4 million gotaways.
 
That totals nearly six and a half million people.
 
To put it in perspective… that’s bigger than the population sizes of thirty-three U.S. states.
 
Among the 5 million encounters, our border patrol heroes have caught nearly 200 known and suspected terrorists trying to cross into our country illegally. This should concern every American.
 
But what I’m even more concerned about is how many are among the 1.4 million who got away.
 
This is something I have been sounding the alarm bells about my entire time in Congress.
 
Something that unfortunately my Democrat colleagues have buried their heads in the sand and refused to address for the last two + years.
 
I could continue talking about the terrible numbers all day. About the 15,000 criminals arrested, or the 14,000 pounds of fentanyl that have been seized—enough to kill over 3 billion people—just in the last six months.
 
But I want to turn the focus of today’s discussion about border security back to the tragedies affecting real people every day.
 
Americans like Elisa Tambunga from Ozona, Texas, whose 7-year-old daughter and 71-year-old mother were killed in a high-speed car wreck by a human trafficker who was smuggling 11 illegal aliens in his pickup truck.
 
Children like the 700 unaccompanied migrants who were dropped off at a man camp in Midland, Texas in the middle of the night by the Biden Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services.
 
Fathers like Joe Warnick of Odessa, Texas, who found his 17-year-old-son dead after taking a pill laced with fentanyl.
 
Or the 53 migrants who died in the sweltering heat in the back of a tractor-trailer in San Antonio.
 
These are real people. Real lives ended or changed forever. Do they not matter to this President or my colleagues on the other side of the aisle?
 
This is not just a border crisis, this is a national security and humanitarian crisis that is endangering every American, every day.
 
Texans demand a solution, and today I am proud to join my colleagues in supporting H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act of 2023.
 
The timing of our solution could not be critical, with tonight’s expiration of Title 42 and the resulting surge of illegal immigration to our border.
 
This bill will force the Biden Administration to restart construction of the border wall, deploy much-needed technology improvements, increase the number of Border Patrol agents and give them well-deserved bonuses, require transparency regarding illegal crossings from the Department of Homeland Security, strengthen current law to protect unaccompanied children from human trafficking, end catch and release, and end abuse of executive immigration authority.
 
Several of my original provisions are included in this package to require the Biden Administration to own up to the total number of known gotaways and known or suspected terrorists crossing the border each month, as well as outline the costs border states are incurring due to the crisis.  
 
Republicans will not ignore the crisis. We will restore the security of our border.
 
I’m extremely proud to stand here today in strong support of the Secure Border Act of 2023.
 
I want to give special thanks to Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, and Speaker McCarthy for their leadership on this crucial legislation. I urge all my colleagues to support the bill and secure the border.”