Jim Banks

“I oppose this bill. It stops immigration officers from arresting people near school bus stops. Criminals who are in the country illegally will hide at bus stops to avoid arrest. Officers must be able to do their jobs anywhere to keep people safe.”

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, this is just another attempt after many other attempts by Democrats to stop ICE from doing their job and enforcing our immigration laws. As you are seeing today, Democrats will do anything that they can to stop ICE, our men and women who are in Federal law enforcement, from securing our Nation and keeping families safe. In my State of Indiana just over this last weekend, an illegal with an ICE detainer, drunk and behind the wheel of a vehicle, killed an innocent 33-year-old woman, Tamara Thomas, who was walking near a gas station in downtown Indianapolis. Tamara, unfortunately, is not the first Hoosier who lost her life because of an illegal immigration crisis in this country. In February, an illegal ran a red light and killed 64-year-old Terry Schultz in Avon, IN, and in the same month, an illegal semitruck driver who entered our country using Joe Biden’s CBP One app swerved into oncoming traffic and killed four Amish men near my hometown in Jay County in Northern Indiana. A couple of months ago, Indianapolis police arrested an illegal from Mexico who now faces 30 separate charges, including rape, sexual assault, and kidnapping; and this illegal came into our country under the Biden administration. Last year, a 35-year-old illegal who was living in Indianapolis was sentenced to 35 years in prison after he sexually exploited and abused a 15-year-old girl. Hoosiers are going to keep getting killed and harmed by illegals unless we let ICE officers do their job. The madness has to end, and it needs to end right now. We need to support our ICE officers. ICE needs to be allowed to do their job without Democrats getting in their way. I have been in the Senate for 2 years, and over and over again, the Democrats have tried to obstruct ICE from doing their job. This bill that I am about to object to today will prohibit ICE from operating near schoolbus stops, but we know that illegal aliens are often at or near bus stops. So here is the deal, in Virginia last year, ICE arrested a 36-year- old illegal alien from Mexico, a convicted pedophile who exposed himself to a child at a schoolbus stop. How can anyone hear a story like that and think that the answer is to block ICE officers from doing their job at a schoolbus stop? If we prohibit ICE from operating at schoolbus stops, you know what will happen; we will just create sanctuary schoolbus stops. All the illegals, the criminals, the pedophiles will end up at schoolbus stops because they know they will be protected there. All those illegals in this country--they will hide out at bus stops. And knowing that ICE won’t be allowed to touch them, you will see more stories like what you saw happened in Virginia last year. It is just crazy to me to think that we would prevent ICE officers from going wherever they need to go to do their job, even if that means at a bus stop, in those rare--very rare--circumstances and occasions. ICE needs to be allowed to operate wherever the job takes them, especially at places where illegal aliens can harm our children. Look, ICE is not the enemy. Democrats are trying to make our ICE officers out to be the enemy, and they are not. Just a couple of weeks ago, ICE conducted a 5-day operation in my home State, which resulted in the arrest of 426 illegals. These criminals included people who were charged with robberies, drug trafficking, sex crimes, and more. ICE also arrested an illegal from Guatemala who illegally voted in national elections in Indiana. The Democrats all say that never happens, but they arrested an illegal just a few weeks ago in Indiana who did that. So here we go again with another attempt by Democrats to obstruct our Federal law enforcement. Instead of giving ICE more resources to do the job that they need to do--not less--instead of doing anything that we can to deport illegals from our country, Democrats are here asking for unanimous consent to tie ICE’s hands behind their backs and prevent them from doing their job. I won’t let that happen. That is why I came to the floor today. ICE needs to be allowed to enforce the law and do their job, and for that reason, I object.”

“I ask the House to pass this resolution right now without any debate.”

“I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.”

“First, I am honoring Brad Fisher, an Indiana police officer who was killed in the line of duty today. Second, the Senate must fully fund our military and pass a bill to stop noncitizens from voting. China is building up its military and trying to interfere in our country and our elections. We must make sure only American citizens can vote.”

“Mr. President, before I begin my remarks today, I must say that with a heavy heart I am grieving today for town marshal Brad Fisher, a 25-year law enforcement veteran who was tragically killed today in the line of duty in Indiana. Marshal Fisher was assisting other officers in stopping a fleeing suspect when the suspect hit Marshal Fisher and ultimately killed him. I am praying for Marshal Fisher, for his family, everyone in the town of Lynn, IN, and Randolph County. What a devastating loss, a tragic loss. May he rest in peace. And may we always remember the sacrifice that all of our men and women of law enforcement make when they keep us safe. I just want to take a minute and remember him. Mr. President, President Trump recently confirmed what many of us already knew: that foreign adversaries like China are working daily to interfere in our elections and our democratic society. China especially seeks America’s decline in hopes that they can establish a world order that runs through the Chinese Communist Party, and we must do everything possible that we can to stop them from doing that. Historically, when countries have held that kind of ambition, they have started big, catastrophic wars. It should come as no surprise that the People’s Liberation Army is undertaking the largest peacetime military buildup in human history. That is why it is incumbent upon this body to fully fund our military--including President Trump’s $1.5 trillion defense budget request that he has made of this body--so that we can deter exactly that kind of conflict. It is outrageous that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle-- the Democrats--are holding up this bipartisan NDAA and budget request to fund our military when our military desperately needs our support. Yet, even if we successfully deter a hot conflict, we could still lose in other ways. That is because every day the CCP is waging economic and political warfare against us. The CCP is trying to nurture dependency, exploit our divisions, cause us to question the justness of our cause, and erode our democracy. This political warfare campaign is not confined to the shadows. In many cases, it operates out in the open. Just take a look at Neville Roy Singham. Singham is a 72-year-old American tech mogul who sold his company and immediately fled to China. From his Shanghai office--which he shares with a CCP propaganda outlet--whose avowed mission, by the way, is ``to tell China’s story well’’--Singham began funding a complex network of leftwing NGOs and nonprofits that advance the interests of the Chinese Communist Party. Take a look at some of the radical organizations on this chart that he supports through the billions of dollars that he made selling his tech company to a Chinese Communist Party business. This is all a matter of public record. Even the New York Times has marveled at the hundreds of millions of dollars that Singham-linked groups have funneled to radical nonprofits that ``mix progressive advocacy with Chinese Government talking points.’’ Take one example that you and I know well--CODEPINK--you know, the radical organization that chases many of us around the hallways--around this building and our office buildings. You see, CODEPINK used to condemn CCP human rights abuses. But after Singham started lavishly funding the group--and then, by the way, he married its cofounder--CODEPINK stopped criticizing the Chinese Government and started defending it. In fact, in recent years, CODEPINK has even provided cover for the CCP’s shocking genocide in Xinjiang. Meanwhile, a newer Singham nonprofit called No Cold War is entirely dedicated to advocacy designed to ensure America is defenseless against the CCP’s economic, military, and political warfare. But the Singham network is not limited to China-specific advocacy. Singham groups advance a wide variety of causes that are united only by their hatred of America, our allies, and the rule of law. From anti-ICE boycotts, violence against law enforcement, rioting, obstruction, and support for Hamas’ attempted genocide of Jews in Israel, Singham groups and their members advance division, chaos, and hatred. All of this advances CCP interests and poisons our society. Thankfully, under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Justice is now investigating this and whether Singham has been fueling this lawlessness in violation of U.S. law. It has been a long time coming. At the same time, the State Department under Secretary Rubio is leading from the front in identifying leftwing violence and building an international coalition to confront it. It should come as no surprise that, as the CCP seeks to interfere in our society, it also seeks to interfere in our elections. As President Trump disclosed before the American people in a prime-time address earlier this month, China perpetrated the largest known compromise of United States voter information in history: stealing the personal data of over 220 million Americans in the 2020 election. The President also exposed ongoing vulnerabilities when it comes to America’s elections, and thank God he did that. As one newly declassified intelligence assessment found: Our adversaries are actively coming for our elections, and if that is not enough to sound the alarm--what you just heard from President Trump in his prime-time press conference and what I just shared with you--I don’t know what else is. All Americans--especially my colleagues in this body--should be outraged by this vulnerability. We know that our adversaries like the CCP seek to do us harm and yet we stand by and often do nothing about it. Our inaction has no excuse. We need to safeguard our democracy, and we need to do it right now. If this Chamber does anything at all this year, it must ensure that American elections are for Americans only--now and always. That is precisely why we have got to pass the SAVE America Act, and we have to pass it now, ASAP. In the face of the CCP’s coordinated campaign, we need more election integrity--not less. We need to ensure that all votes in American elections come from Americans--not illegal aliens or foreign manipulation. And by the way, it is not only because of our international adversaries that we need to pass the SAVE America Act. Just last week, a huge story hardly got any notice in the mainstream media. But the new Democrat Governor of New Jersey--a former colleague of mine in the House--she announced that 6,600 noncitizens were ``accidentally added to the New Jersey voter rolls.’’ That is a hell of an accident. But not only that, she also told us that nearly 400 of those voters, who were accidentally placed on their voter rolls, actually voted in the last two elections in New Jersey. Some of my colleagues keep saying that stories like this are a figment of our imagination. It doesn’t really happen. Illegals don’t vote in American elections. The Democratic Governor of New Jersey just told us it did happen. They keep saying that these stories are just, I suppose, ``accidents’’ or ``software glitches’’ is what the Governor called it. The fact of the matter is that these stories keep happening, and we need to do everything that we can to put an end to it. It destroys trust in our elections when Americans read about stories like that. If we have to cancel the August recess to pass the SAVE America Act, so be it. Let’s do it. Protecting our elections from fraud and international interference is a lot more important to me than vacation time. Our adversaries--like the Chinese Communist Party--will stop at nothing to distract, divide, disrupt, and destroy America. Their campaign is not confined to election day. Election day is our last line of defense. Americans must always be free to reject the CCP and its values, while choosing a path that embraces the timeless truths that have always been at America’s core. The day that the CCP chooses the outcome of our elections will be the day that it won. And by then, it will be way too late to correct course and pass a commonsense bill like the SAVE America Act. We cannot wait for that day. I urge all of my colleagues to wake up. It is time to pass the SAVE America Act to save our elections, protect our country, save America. It is fundamentally important. I yield the floor.”

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“I object to this resolution. It is just an unfair attack on Florida by a lawmaker from a different state. We should work together to lower costs for Americans instead of passing this.”

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, it is pretty clear that this resolution is an attack on a red State by one of my colleagues from a blue State. I respect my colleague, but this resolution doesn’t pass muster. In fact, we know that the radical, Green New Deal agenda that was wrought on us in this country by the Biden administration raised gas prices in this country to astronomical rates, made life less affordable and more difficult for Americans all over this country. That is why they quickly turned the page on those policies and got rid of Biden and those radical Green New Deal policies and chose President Trump to come back to the White House. We had really good news this week. Inflation rates came way down-- down as much as we have seen it in many years--because of President Trump’s policies to uproot Green New Deal policies, passing the Working Families Tax Cut bill that we passed that makes life more affordable for working families all over this the country. It is pretty clear that this resolution is just a veiled attack on Florida. I am not from Florida. Florida is a good State. And I love the State of Rhode Island. I did all of my Navy training there. I respect my colleague. It is ironic with this resolution because 2 percent of Rhode Islanders over the last 5 years have moved to Florida, and they moved to Florida especially after the pandemic--all of the mandates and higher taxes, and they are choosing a State that works, that is attracting them, just like people from all over the coast are moving to Florida because they like Florida, they like lower taxes, and they like the quality of life that Florida offers. This resolution is just an attack on Florida. I do invite my colleague--again, whom I respect and enjoy working with--to come to the Banking Committee. Let’s work on bipartisan solutions and ideas to bring down the cost of living for all Americans. We can do that together. We can find solutions to do that. This resolution doesn’t do that. Mr. President, that is why I object.”