Scalise: Senate Must Take Up House Border Security Legislation
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) appeared on Fox Business Network’s Kudlow to discuss the need to have President Donald Trump back in the White House and the continued importance of increased border security. Leader Scalise emphasized that we need to get back to prioritizing national security by securing our border, implementing policies like ‘Remain in Mexico,’ and maintaining the rule of law. Leader Scalise outlined several ways both the Democrat-run Senate and White House have enabled this crisis, including their refusal to pass impactful legislation, like H.R. 2. He emphasized that under President Biden, our national security is at extreme risk.
Click here or the image above to view Leader Scalise's full interview.
On Joe Biden's failures:
“Well, you know, if you look at last year, we had a lot to get through internally – you know, a lot of internal fights within the Republican House, a lot of big battles and things we had to deal with in terms of moving our agenda through the House. But 2024 – this is the time to be focused on the election in November. And I think the more you look at how off the track our country is and what we need to do to fix it, there is nobody better positioned than Donald Trump to get our country back on track. You were there, I was there – working with him on the congressional side, you were in the White House – when we got our country moving again, and it didn't take long.
“Donald Trump knows what we need to do to get our economy moving again, to help those families who are struggling again. And if you look at energy costs, you and I talk about energy policy all the time, Larry. We never had a better, more pro-America but pro-free market energy policy in the world than when Donald Trump was president. Joe Biden came in, quickly reversed it. We saw what happened immediately -- skyrocketing energy costs.The bad actors around the world became more dominant: Iran making over $80 billion selling energy. Let's undermine those bad actors. Let's make America strong again, lower costs again for families. Our border – you saw yesterday [Speaker Johnson] take a group of lawmakers to the border. I've been to the border, I've embedded with our Border Patrol agents. They will tell you what needs to happen.
“And it's getting back to the things that were working under President Donald Trump. Where we had a secure border, you had the ‘Remain in Mexico' policy. There was always an ability to claim asylum. But you don't come from other countries – 150 plus countries all around the world – and show up across the Rio Grande and say, ‘I'm here to get my asylum. I'll go to the court date in five years. And in the meantime, you will not know where I am.’ You're giving them a free pass into America. We've got people on the terrorist watch list coming into our country illegally right now under Secretary Mayorkas and Joe Biden. That wasn't happening under President Trump. We need to get back to things that work again for hard-working families who are sick and tired of the far left, wokeism, liberalism, and socialism; call it whatever you want, it's not working for families who are struggling. We need to get back to things that did work. And Donald Trump knows how to do that and he can do it quickly, Larry.”
On the need for secure and practical border legislation:
“This issue isn't going away, Larry, because it's a major threat to America's national security – probably the most imminent one we've seen in years – where you have tens of thousands of people every week coming across our border illegally. Joe Biden knows about it. He created the policies that are encouraging this illegal immigration, and he won't work with Republicans to fix the problem. We passed multiple pieces of legislation as you talked about H.R. 2 – strong legislation to secure America's border. We passed that over six months ago. It's been sitting in the Senate doing nothing because they don't want to fix the problem.
“We passed a homeland security bill to fund our border security in the way we need to. What Joe Biden did – and you watched the White House the last few days going: ‘Republicans won't give us more money.’ Why do they always say it's more money? We read the bill, by the way. Their bill is not just for more money, Larry. It's more money to process people coming into our country illegally. That's not what we need. We need to stop the illegal flow. So it's not more money, it's actual border security. Again, remain in Mexico or stay in your home country if you want to claim asylum.
“What we need are laws that are fully enforced, that actually enforce the asylum laws of our nation. Get back to the rule of law. There's a legal way to come to America. If you just follow those laws, we won't have a problem. They don't want rule of law, Larry. You talked about it earlier: They want to kick people off the ballot they disagree with. They want federal agencies going after people whether it's legal or not, whether it's EPA, IRS, any agency. Let's get back to rule of law.”