Katie Britt Slams Dems For Focusing On Kilmar Abrego Garcia: Let’s Talk About ‘An Actual Maryland Resident’

Forbes Breaking News

During Thursday’s Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) questioned DHS Secretary. Kristi Noem about the murder of Rachel Morin.

Transcript

00:00Madam Secretary, I'd actually like to take a little bit of my time real quick to turn to

00:08an actual Maryland resident. And I believe if we're going to spend that much time talking about

00:14Mr. Abrego Garcia, we need to talk about Rachel Moran. And she was a citizen of Maryland who

00:25was brutally raped and murdered in 2023 by another criminal illegal alien from El Salvador who had

00:32no business being in the United States. May her story and others like it serve as a reminder to

00:40the human cost of unchecked illegal immigration policies, the need to secure our border and the

00:46need to swiftly remove criminal illegal aliens from the United States. Speaking of, let's go back.

00:53Take a look at what President Trump inherited. We talked about this earlier, but when Joe Biden

00:59took office, there were 3.3 million people on the non-detained docket. When President Trump took

01:04office, that number had risen to 7.6 million people on the non-detained docket. When you look at the

01:11docket, the President Biden and his administration spent their entire term simply allowing people and

01:19aliens to cross the border into our communities. Of those who had been given their final orders of

01:26removal, meaning they had their due process, the Biden administration simply sat on their hands

01:32instead of actively working to remove those individuals, which created chaos and unfortunately

01:40criminal opportunities on our interior. Thankfully, we have new leadership at the White House and a

01:46department who will no longer tolerate the subversion of our immigration laws and activities.

01:51I think since we're here to talk about the budget today, that's what I'd like to talk about.

01:55What do you and your department need, the brave men and women who serve alongside you, in order to

02:01secure our border, in order to keep our interior safe from coast to coast, and to continue to make

02:08America a safe, secure, and prosperous place to be?

02:10Well, the Department of Homeland Security is tasked with overseeing 23 different components

02:16that are pretty broad. And it was formed after 9-11 in response to the terrorist attacks to help us

02:23secure our country and everything that's in the interior of our country. The President's budget

02:27request, along with reconciliation package, focus on what some of our greatest threats are that face our

02:33future and our children and grandchildren's ability to grow up here and to have a future. And that is

02:38continuing to secure our border, to make sure we're addressing technology needs that have been

02:43neglected for far too long, get our Coast Guard to the standard to what the missions are requiring them

02:49to be at to be successful, building more wall, more agents for CBP, more ICE agents and beds so that we can

02:58remove illegal criminals out of this country and dangerous individuals that are threatening our public

03:03safety. And then also going forward and looking at how we conduct operations on training our law

03:09enforcement officers, how we can put CISA back on mission at focusing on cyber security. The requests going

03:16forward focus in those areas and TSA so that we have the technology upgrades that we need to really make

03:23sure that we are doing due diligence to secure our country and the systems that help run our

03:28critical infrastructure.

03:29I really appreciate that. And I'm hoping that you continue to work on what you need to move forward as it develops.

03:38Yeah.

03:41This country safe. On that, your predecessor actually refused to call what was going on at the border a crisis.

03:48Um, it is clear that's exactly what was happening. You also have shown that coming in, we did not need

03:54any new legislation to actually secure the border. Um, you have taken action. President Trump has taken

04:00action to secure it. I mean, creating a space that we haven't seen in decades. You've talked about a

04:07number of things. One of the things you just mentioned was a border wall. Can you talk about the construction

04:12of a border wall and what that would do for the men and women of CBP and overall DHS? I know that we are

04:19a nation of immigrants. We're proud of that. We're also a nation of law and lawlessness has to stop.

04:24And I believe that anybody on this dais that locks their door at night should understand the need for

04:30a border wall. The American people should have that level of security when they go to sleep at night.

04:35So can you talk about the importance of that and kind of how you see that unfolding?

04:40The, we have currently over 700 miles of border wall, um, on the southern border and infrastructure

04:47that is there, um, operating today. Since President Trump has been in office, we've constructed another

04:5377 miles that is in place. That is an inclusion of steel bollard wall that has been built, but also

05:00temporary, uh, wall that has been put forward, uh, with concertina wire and panels. And then also

05:06we have, um, some waterborne, um, buoys that are being utilized as well. We have 11 contracts that

05:12have been allocated to continue building infrastructure and then also five more that

05:17are pending to be allocated to build more miles to have that infrastructure there to help secure

05:22vulnerable areas. Now the border wall will look different based on what the topography is and the

05:27geography is of the area. So there's some areas on the northern border and the southern border and out in

05:32our maritime, uh, infrastructure that we need that will have technology. Um, it'll utilize, um, aerostar

05:40systems, radio frequencies, satellite systems. Those upgrades just simply haven't been made or prioritized

05:46under the last administration and need to be done. So we will use a combination for what's appropriate

05:52out there for the topography and working with the local states, um, and tribal areas to make sure that it's

05:58something that secures our country, but also is something that they can help support and secure

06:02as well. Thank you for that commitment. Vice Chair Murray.

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