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, “ICE Under Fire: The Radical Left’s Crusade Against Immigration Enforcement.” Excerpts are below, and video can be found here.

“President Biden invited millions of unvetted illegal aliens into the United States. These included hundreds of thousands of criminal aliens, violent gang members, and even individuals on the terror watch list.”

“Ever since President Trump was sworn into office and began prioritizing immigration enforcement, assaults and attacks on immigration agents and officers have skyrocketed.” 

“DHS has reported that currently more than 415,000 illegal aliens in the United States already have criminal convictions – 415,000. Of that number, nearly 400,000 aren’t even detained.”

“The only reason that ICE and CBP must go out in our streets and seek out and arrest criminal aliens is because sanctuary cities simply refuse to cooperate with law enforcement.”

“The mainstream media, unfortunately, has shown no willingness to educate the public. Instead of reporting these realities truthfully, mainstream media outlets like CNN, MSNBC, and ABC have ignored the real harm that these criminal aliens have caused in these communities, and instead directed their ire toward law enforcement.”

“Some of our Democratic colleagues have used incendiary rhetoric to fan the flames of public protests that are anything but mostly peaceful. The result has been widespread assaults on our law enforcement officers.”

“Protesters have made violent threats against ICE officers, comparing them to fascists and Nazis, inciting more violence against immigration officers, who are again simply doing the job that Congress has asked them to do.” 

“Why is the Radical Left so intent on protecting illegal aliens over U.S. citizens who are suffering the consequences of violent crime? To me, that is the most important question that remains unanswered.”