WASHINGTON, DC — Congressman August Pfluger (TX-11) joined Speaker Kevin McCarthy (CA-23) in a press conference last night demanding President Biden and Congress take action to fund the government and secure the border.

Watch Pfluger’s remarks here or read a transcript below.

“Everybody's talking about a shutdown. And that's all that's been in the news. I'm talking about a shutdown too. We need the southern border to be shut down. I just came from Eagle Pass yesterday. And if you want to talk about heartbreak and tragedy, meet the woman who was brutally assaulted, kidnapped, separated from her husband 30 stitches in the back of her head kicked in the face by cartel members. I blame Joe Biden for that, for allowing the cartels to have operational control of the southern border, for allowing the cartels to smuggle and traffic over seven and a half million people in the last two and a half years, for allowing over 150 people who match the terror watch list to enter this country illegally just this year. Failed policies—not allowing our border patrol agents to actually do the national security mission.

Only 10% of our agents right now today are in the field protecting our country from those people who are trying to evade capture. I blame President Biden for the 53 migrants south of San Antonio in the July heat that roasted in the back of a tractor-trailer. That's not humane. It is his failed policies that have led us to this point.

We passed the most comprehensive, and the best, border security bill in decades. That bill needs to go to the Senate and the president needs to make a decision. If he wants to keep the government open, he needs to shut down the border.

Texans have had enough. The 100,000 families who have lost their loved ones due to the poisoning of fentanyl have had enough. Even my friends from states like Massachusetts, as a speaker mentioned, even Democrat friends are saying we're getting pressure to do something about the border.

Come to Texas. Where is mainstream media? Go to Eagle Pass. Go meet the migrants that I met. Go hear their story through the Darien Gap where I was at this summer. Go ask them. Go ask that young lady who was kidnapped by the cartel members what her story was. We have complete chaos there and it's it is completely avoidable. Reinstate Remain-in-Mexico, have consequences. Every Border Patrol agent will tell you that there are no consequences.

No border security. No funding, it's time to shut down the southern border.”