Washington, D.C. – Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (R-TX) hostedthe Republican Leader of the House Budget Committee, Congressman Jason Smith, after an eye-opening trip down to the southern border.
Burgess: "I've studied this issue for a number of years. It's not new, just the level of anxiety that people have over the border has heightened because things have been run so badly. If you don't go there and see it for yourself, it becomes impossible to understand… Unless you go down and see it firsthand."
Smith: "In fact, as we heard from the border patrol, communication is 80%-90% nonverbal. When we met with those border patrol officers, we asked them, 'What is the most important policy at securing our border?' That's the remain in Mexico policy. That was the policy that this administration tried to eliminate and the courts came back and said that 'you can't do it.' Then they redefined it in such a way that the old remain in Mexico policy pretty much doesn't exist because they exempted so many things. A border patrol officer told us that if you broke your arm in third grade, you could be exempted under the remain in Mexico policy. That's literally what a border patrol officer told us because it's so broad."
Smith: "Every listener has someone that they know, a friend or family member, that they've lost because of [fentanyl]. It's devastating. It's terrible. But it's a result of our policies."
