This week, the Florida delegation broke on party lines over the “National Origin-Based Antidiscrimination for Nonimmigrants (NO BAN) Act” which limits the White House’s ability to offer travel bans and would end the Trump administration’s efforts to limit Muslims entering the nation.
The U.S. House passed the measure on a 218-208 vote. Party lines held with the exception of U.S. Rep. Brain Fitzpatrick, R-Penn., who joined the Democratic majority in passing it.
Republicans from the Sunshine State lined up against the proposal with U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., taking to the House floor to speak against it.
Steube’s full remarks are below:
Thank you, Madam Speaker. This is a dangerous piece of legislation that comes at a time when our national security and our public health are being threatened by a dire crisis in our southern border. Only Democrats would bring a bill to the floor during a surge at our southern border that would make it easier for terrorists to enter our country. As someone who served in the War on Terror and served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, the last thing we should be doing as a nation is making it easier for terrorists in Iran, Iraq, Syria and other terrorist harboring nations to travel to the United States.
Despite the harrowing statistics we see coming from the southern border with record-setting numbers of illegal crossings and unaccompanied minors, my colleagues on the left continue to ignore and downplay the actual facts, while terrorists and COVID-positive illegal immigrants are granted unprecedented access to our country.
The Biden administration has driven illegal crossings up to historic highs by encouraging more illegal immigration and loosening restrictions to give criminals a free pass. These policy reversals – and now this legislation – will be directly responsible for what will go down in history as our biggest failure of border security in our lifetime.
Now, rather than addressing the hundreds of thousands of illegal border crossings this year, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are still spending their time trying to attack the successful policies from the Trump administration that actually drove our border numbers down and kept Americans safe.
Rather than attacking the Trump administration at the expense of the American people, my colleagues on the left should instead think about spending their time trying to reinstate some of his policies that were proven effective, like continuing border wall construction or ending chain migration.
Even more hypocritical, while telling American citizens to stay home from work, school, and to refrain from normal life due to a global pandemic, legislation like this keeps sending the message to illegal aliens – even those from dangerous countries – that the United States is open for them to flood our borders and be taken care of by our taxpayers.
At a time when there is a border crisis, global pandemic, and emerging national security threats, we should not be handicapping any current or future president from exercising their executive authority to keep our country safe.
In fact, the Obama-Biden administration used this authority 19 times during their administration. The only reason why my colleagues are pushing this is because of their hatred for President Trump and his actions to restrict entry from certain countries that protected our national security.
I yield back.
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