UPDATE: Guest Delivers Speech on His Resolution to Condemn Biden Administration for Politicizing Actions of Border Agents to Secure Border

View the speech by clicking here.

Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman Michael Guest (MS-03) delivered a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives in support of H. Res. 1255, his resolution expressing support for U.S. Border Patrol agents and condemning the Biden Administration for politicizing the measures taken by mounted Border Patrol agents to respond to an influx of illegal Haitian immigrants in Del Rio, Texas, in September of 2021. The text of the speech as prepared can be found below.

“Mister Speaker, I rise to oppose the previous question so we can immediately consider H. Res. 1255. This resolution expresses support for U.S. Border Patrol agents and condemns the Biden Administration for politicizing the measures taken by mounted Border Patrol agents to respond to an influx of illegal Haitian immigrants in Del Rio, Texas, in September of 2021.

During that encounter, border agents performed the jobs they were hired to do. However, photos were released that showed agents using long reins to control their horses. Those photos were then used by the Biden Administration to manufacture an attack on law enforcement agents, a common political tactic that we’ve seen implemented by those on the far-left for far too long in movements such as Defund the Police and Defund ICE.

Before any inquiry was made into the events, we saw President Biden and those in his Administration attack these officers to pander to the Progressives within his party. Before the investigation, President Biden made the promise to make those agents “pay.” And even after the allegations were debunked by CBP and by the journalist who took the photos, President Biden and those on the Left who supported those false claims refused to retract their statements and refused to apologize to the agents they publicly attacked.

We were promised a swift investigation, but the investigation took months to complete and, once completed, the allegations of assault were dropped and replaced with punishment for using “offensive language” and other minor infractions. National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd summed it up best when he said, “The moment he made that statement [referring to President Biden], the moment he said that those agents would pay, the moment he convicted those agents without any evidence, without any investigation, there could be no doubt in anybody's mind that these investigators were going to come back with some sort of charge against the agents,"

Mister Speaker, I have been to the border. I have spoken to law enforcement agents stationed there. They all say the same thing. They say that this Administration has abandoned them. They feel that President Biden, Vice President Harris, and others in the Biden Administration manufactured a political scandal by targeting the agents who are working hard every day to secure our border and protect our nation. This is the last thing our hard-working law enforcement agents deserve.

The morale of our border agents remains low due to extreme pressure and long hours exacerbated by the President’s border crisis. The last thing they need is their elected officials turning their backs on them or, in cases such as Del Rio, publicly betraying them. They need to know that their elected officials stand with them, not in opposition to them, to secure our border and end this crisis that is bringing drugs into our communities and endangering the lives of law enforcement agents, American citizens, and the migrants themselves.

That’s why this legislation is so important. Congress must continue to express its support for our law enforcement agents and work with them, not against them, to secure our border. The law enforcement community needs to know that this Congress stands with them, even when they are attacked by the people who are elected to support them.

I encourage my colleagues to vote no on ordering the previous question so that we can send a simple message to the men and women who are working overtime to secure our border and our nation - We stand with you and we will not abandon you.”

Congressman Michael Guest represents Mississippi's Third Congressional District. Currently serving his second term, Congressman Guest serves as the Vice Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security, as a Member of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and as a Member of the Committee on Ethics.

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