Skip to main content

Scalise: Democrats Would Rather Give Criminals Amnesty Than Solve the Border Crisis

June 4, 2019

WASHINGTON, D.C.—House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined fellow Republican leaders to discuss the crisis at our southern border and Democrats' failure to solve or even acknowledge the crisis. Instead, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is bringing legislation to the floor that would grant amnesty to immigrants in the country illegally even if they have a criminal record or known gang affiliation. Rather than endanger American communities with legislation like H.R. 6, Whip Scalise called on Speaker Pelosi to bring real solutions to the floor to address the border crisis.


Image removed.
Click here or on the image above to watch the remarks.


On Speaker Pelosi's failure to pass meaningful legislation as her caucus focuses on impeachment:

"This week, we don't have a lot of legislation on the floor, as has been the custom of Nancy Pelosi's speakership. They don't have much of an agenda. They're focused on impeaching the president.

"This week, the only real bill they're bringing to the floor is focused on giving amnesty to millions of people who are here illegally, but specifically, to people that have actual criminal backgrounds
one of the many disturbing parts of the amnesty bill that is going to be voted on today."

On the Democrats' plan to provide amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants even criminals and gang members:

"Speaker Pelosi has language in the bill that blocks law enforcement from accessing the gang database. Today, so many prosecutors across the country are able to use that gang database to identify people that are part of or associated with gang activity.

"Yet in the bill, they block law enforcement from being able to access that gang database. This is a bad bill. It's a bill that shouldn't pass. But we'll see if they're able to get the votes, and hopefully this would never get to the President's desk because it's not the way to solve our problems with immigration.

"We've got a crisis at the border. This bill adds $34 billion of unpaid, forced spending to give amnesty to people, and yet there's not a single dime in this bill for border security. It just goes to highlight that there is a crisis at the border and Democrats in Congress refuse to solve this problem."


On the crisis at the southern border that Democrats refuse to address:

"In fact, in the next two weeks possibly, [the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)] could run out of money that has been allocated to them to address the health problems that are related to the thousands of people that are coming across our border illegally every single day.

"Weeks ago, President Trump sent a request for over $4 billion to address this crisis at the border. Speaker Pelosi refuses to take action. If she doesn't take action in the next few weeks, HHS could run out of money, which right now they're scheduled to do.

"Think about what's going on right now. Thousands of people are coming over every single day, illegally. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) receives them and stops them and detains them. By law, they've got to detain, let's say, young children. If some of those young children have health problems, they turn them over to HHS to help take care of those kids.

"Well, if [HHS] runs out of money in the next two weeks and there's no money for HHS to take care of the health needs of these kids, they're still going to be held by DHS, Department of Homeland Security. And there will be no way to make sure that we can take care of the health needs of those kids.

"That's why President Trump called on Congress to take action. Speaker Pelosi refuses to address this crisis. It is about to reach a head in the next few weeks. We shouldn't let it get there. Congress needs to act. We're calling on Speaker Pelosi to take action on the President's request for this crisis at the border, and take action now."