WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) today delivered the following opening remarks during the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration hearing he chaired entitled, “Biden’s Border Betrayal: Criminal Aliens in America.” Excerpts are below, and video can be found here.

“Media outlets have spread misinformation allowing harmful, false rhetoric to dominate the airwaves.”

“The first false narrative I want to address is a claim that illegal aliens are not criminals, but law-abiding individuals.”

“At the moment an alien illegally enters the United States, they have committed a crime.”

“By the time any alien has received an order of removal, they have had all the due process they are owed under the law.”

“Many have had the opportunity to have their day in court – the very essence of due process that they neglected to show up.”

“As we speak, there are 291,141 criminal aliens in the United States today who have final orders of removal.”

“I want to remind my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that there was a time in the not so distant past when they agreed that criminal aliens should be deported, but it seems like amnesia has set in, especially because we now happen to have a President in office who has restored the rule of law.”

“American voters know full-well that deterrence is an important part of immigration enforcement and preventing the flow of criminal aliens into the United States, which means swift apprehension, detention, and deportation.”

“The State of Florida has stepped up to the plate recently, helping the administration to open a detention facility that’s come to be known as Alligator Alcatraz. I’m hopeful that other states will step up to help in similar ways. If we could find a way to make something like this work in Texas, I would strongly support it, and I’d encourage our Governor, as well as Secretary Noem, to explore the possibility of locating future detention facilities in Texas.”

“We’re here today to remind the public of the real tragedy of President Biden’s open-border policies, the hundreds of victims of criminal illegal aliens – crimes that could have been avoided if the laws on the books had simply been enforced.”