Everybody knows that, except for Native Americans, this great nation of ours is a nation of immigrants. We're one of the most welcoming nations in the world, maybe the most welcoming to immigrants – because about a million people come here every year legally.
My family has been blessed by two – a daughter-in-law of 45 years from South Korea, [and] a granddaughter-in-law of about six or seven years from Ethiopia. I've learned much from them, and I think America is great because of the people that come here.
But we're also a nation based on the rule of law, and we have not seen that immigration law enforced over the last four years. So I'm going to be voting for Governor Noem, because she's committed to enforcing our immigration laws.
I think Secretary Mayorkas felt in his heart that we ought to give the American land of opportunity, [to give that] opportunity to anybody who wanted to come here. He said he was enforcing the laws, but we know that he wasn't enforcing laws. Because you saw every night on TV, people crossing the Rio Grande, coming to this country and violating our laws as they entered.
We all know that if you're going to be a sovereign nation, you got to control your borders. We can't have millions of people coming here in violation of our laws, people that are on the terrorist watch list, people with criminal records, everybody just willy-nilly coming here. We are that land of opportunity, but also a land of the rule of law.
We're seeing deportations going on now, with priority on people that are criminals or on the terrorist watch list. We're hearing some economists and some business people saying our economy is in jeopardy if we deport these people. But no employer is going to hire somebody on the terrorist watch list if they know that they are [on the list]. No employer is going to hire somebody with a criminal record if they know about that criminal record.
So let's talk about the impact of deportation on the economy after people with criminal records, after people that are on the terrorist watch list, and the one-and-two-tenths or one-and-three-tenths million people that have been adjudicated that they did not meet the test of our law that they could legally be in this country – and to have those three categories of people deported, then maybe let's talk about the impact on the economy after that. But, I think that's quite a few months down the road.
One other reason that I'm voting for Governor Noem – and this is a repeat of what I said last night on the floor of the United States Senate in regard to Pete Hegseth being Secretary of Defense. When these people that are nominees come to my office, I point out to them a couple things. Number one, I always say, ‘You're going to be asked if you'll answer our letters,’ and everybody, for decades, has been saying ‘yes’ to that. And I point out to them how they ought to really say ‘maybe.’
Because I use the last four years of the Garland Department of Justice as an example, showing these nominees when they come to my office of a file of about 158 letters that the Department of Justice and the FBI haven’t appropriately answered, even after they said they'd answer all of our letters. Now, that may be a tongue in cheek – ‘maybe,’ quote-unquote, ‘maybe,’ when I tell them that. But I think we have a responsibility to make sure that in our constitutional job of oversight, to see that the laws are faithfully executed – that when we contact the administration, we think things are wrong, that we're entitled to an answer.
This isn't a problem just in the Democratic administration. This is a problem in Republican administrations. So, I asked the new Secretary of Defense that issue. He said he was going to be diligent about that. And I discussed the same thing with Governor Noem as well, because we ought to have our cooperation of the executive branch of government in Congress doing its job of oversight. I'm satisfied that Governor Noem will, to the best of her ability, help us with our oversight responsibilities, and even help us get answers to those left over from the Biden administration.
I think Governor Noem is very well-qualified to be Secretary of Homeland Security. I wish her well in the enforcement of law and reemphasize that border security is very important, not only for the sovereignty of this great nation of ours – because you can't be a sovereign nation if you don't control the borders – and secondly, for our national security, because you can't have people on the terrorist watch lists coming to this country and invading us. And also for law enforcement, because you can't have people with criminal records coming to this country.
It's a big job that's left over from the last four years of a Secretary of Homeland Security that wasn't enforcing the law. I think Governor Noem is up to the test, and we wish her well as she proceeds down this road of making sure that the sovereignty of the United States is protected and our national security is protected, and we have a safe nation based upon law enforcement being able to do its job.
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