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{time} 2000
ISSUES OF THE DAY
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 4, 2021, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Gaetz) for 30 minutes.
Mr. GAETZ. Madam Speaker, the gentlewoman from New Mexico said that the border is not threatening to us, that those who would cross our border illegally carry with them their laughter and poetry.
Unfortunately, laughter and poetry is not the only thing they are bringing. On the edges of that laughter, they are carrying COVID, more and more of them, unable to be tested, screened, vaccinated because so many are being invited across our border illegally it is straining the flow.
In their poetry, they are carrying the rhymes of MS-13; and in their bags, they are carrying too much fentanyl, too much death for our fellow Americans.
I listened carefully as the gentlewoman from Washington smeared our CBP officers as racist, which is quite something considering how many of them are non-White.
I spent time with them recently. My colleague who is with me this evening, Congresswoman Greene, spent time with many of our CBP officers recently, and they are patriotic Americans who deserve better from every Member of Congress than they just heard.
The gentlewoman from Washington also talked about her visit to a Federal detention facility under President Trump. Imagine that. A Republican President, a Democrat Congresswoman, and a desire to oversee and inspect the operations of our government. I am glad that Ms. Jayapal, the gentlewoman from Washington, was afforded that opportunity.
But, unfortunately, today I was not. Congresswoman Greene was not. Congressman Gohmert, Congressman Gosar. We were labeled trespassers by Federal employees of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Now, there is a great deal I want to discuss about the need for oversight with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, specific circumstances regarding January 6 detainees, but before having that thorough discussion, I would yield to my colleague, the gentlewoman from Georgia
(Mrs. Greene) to offer any remarks regarding the mischaracterizations of our brave Border Patrol officers and the crisis at our border that Democrats would ignore as they create a pathway for citizenship for people who did not come here legally. I yield to the gentlewoman.
Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. Madam Speaker, it was very concerning to me to hear my colleague describe Border Patrol as treating people that are coming across our border illegally, differently because of their skin color, because that is not what I witnessed in my recent visit at the border of California and Mexico.
As a matter of fact, I am very proud to report to this House and to the American people that the Border Patrol agents that I spoke with and talked to, that the detention facility that I visited is amazing, and I am very proud of our country.
America is the most generous country in the world. There is no other country on this planet that allows hundreds of thousands of people to try to enter their country, cross their border against their laws, and then treat them so well.
The detention center I visited in California houses 1,100 illegal aliens at the cost of $73 million to the American taxpayers, and that detention facility was immaculate.
The people being held in this detention center have the right to talk to attorneys any time they want. They have an entire library filled with books and resources and computers so that they can educate themselves. They have translators of every language whenever they need them. They have food, they can request food any time they want to eat. They can go outside in the fresh air and the sunshine any time they want to.
They have laundry facilities. They have a gym. They have a full-sized basketball court. It was beautiful. They have iPads that they can speak through FaceTime technology to their family members and their attorneys any time they need to while they await their request for amnesty or while they await their court date because they broke laws in our country.
These are illegal aliens that are not taxpayers, that are not citizens, and they are treated so well. But my good colleague here from Florida and I, along with our other colleagues, Congressman Louie Gohmert, Congressman Paul Gosar, we visited a Federal prison right here in Washington, D.C. today where we were told in the lobby that we were trespassing.
As Members of Congress, it is our duty for oversight over these types of facilities. We vote to fund them, and it is our duty and our right to go there and check on the circumstances of people and the type of facility and the maintenance and the order and the care that the inmates are receiving.
I know this is something that is particularly of interest to you and some of your colleagues, but today we didn't see that. As a matter of fact, I would say the lobby of this prison was not in anywhere near the conditions as far as cleanliness and order that I saw in the detention center in California.
I yield back to Mr. Gaetz to explain that further.
Mr. GAETZ. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. We have an obligation here to approach issues in a bipartisan fashion when it is opportune.
On the issue of prison reform, Republicans and Democrats joined together to pass the First Step Act. It was, in fact, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Jeffries) who led the Democrat effort in that endeavor.
The essence of that is equality and access to information. Republican administrations shouldn't bar Democrats from being able to have reasonable observations of the ongoing workings of our government and, similarly, the Biden government should not have the opportunity to exclude Republicans.
It begs the question why were we there. Following January 6, which was not a good day for our country, which included violence that all of us condemn, there has been an unprecedented targeting of Americans who have a particular viewpoint.
Their bank records are turned over to Federal authorities by financial institutions they thought they could trust. They have seen themselves ripped from their bed at night, pulled out of their places of employment, harassed, questioned.
Many of these people were not even in Washington, D.C. on January 6, but maybe they forwarded the wrong e-mail or liked the wrong photo or shared the wrong meme.
What is happening in America where we take these exquisite national security authorities and we turn them inward on our own people?
We have two principal areas of concern. First, are the January 6 detainees given access to evidence? We don't prejudge for a moment the innocence or guilt of anyone beyond the American principle that everyone is innocent until proven guilty.
But access to exculpatory evidence could show interesting things. It could show that there was a difference between those who believed they were being part of a fully peaceful endeavor and those who might have been animating violence.
The 14,000 hours of tape could also show us who was animating that violence, whether they were connected in any way, directed in any way by Federal agencies.
It raises great suspicion that we are not able to get access to this information as Members of Congress. It raises even more suspicion that people deprived of their liberty right now, in the absence of any conviction, cannot get that very information.
The second category of concern deals with the treatment of people in our Federal facilities. As Congresswoman Greene and I arrived at the Federal facility in Washington today, we did not prejudge whether all of the people in that facility were January 6 detainees or might have been there for some other reason.
I often find on a congressional delegation you learn a lot maybe that you didn't particularly even show up to learn by virtue of having boots on the ground and having that real-time, effective, roll-up-your-
sleeves style of oversight.
We have heard unconfirmed reports of beatings, of deprivation of access to nutrition, to religious services, to counsel. As I stand here today on the floor, I am embarrassed to have to admit to my constituents, I don't know the answers to those questions because the Attorney General won't answer them.
He won't show up in the Judiciary Committee for an oversight hearing. He won't show up to the Oversight Committee. When we show up at the Department of Justice, he won't answer our questions, and when we show up at the Federal Bureau of Prisons, instead of giving answers, instead of providing a tour, which is exactly what Republican and Democrat administrations have done in years past, they said we were the problem.
It begs the question, why would people charged with misdemeanors be held in a Federal facility if otherwise that same Federal indexing would result in release with the bail system or on someone's own recognizance or with supervised release.
Congresswoman Greene, here's my concern and hypothesis that I hope isn't true, that this Biden government wants so badly to have the specter of January 6 function as some sort of basis to continue targeting our fellow Americans that they would use people as political props, that they would deviate from otherwise standard practices in sentencing and in pretrial behavior so that they can continue this fiction that somehow we are under this grave national security threat from MAGA or white supremacy or America First or whatever the new smear of the day is.
I yield to the gentlewoman from Georgia for the purpose of engaging in a colloquy with me.
Congresswoman, do you have a perspective on why the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Prisons seem so willing to deviate from their normal practices with these otherwise pedestrian crimes in the instances of people who did not engage in violence?
Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. Mr. Gaetz, I believe that is a great question. My fear is that this country, our agencies--the FBI, the Department of Justice, and other agencies, intelligence agencies--are taking a two-tiered track to justice in the United States of America, one where Trump supporters are being targeted--these are the stories we are hearing over and over and over again, which is why we are asking questions; questions need to be asked--compared to the catch-and-
release that we have seen with antifa and BLM.
You see, I haven't heard stories of big tech combing through antifa and BLM's social media pages, their friends' pages, their family's pages, reading text messages. I haven't heard stories, I haven't seen it on the news.
I would like to see it if there are some, but I have not heard stories of antifa members and BLM members who rioted in the streets, who looted, who attacked police officers, Federal monuments, police precincts.
I haven't heard stories of them being kept in jail for long periods of time with no idea of when their court date is. I haven't heard stories of Republican Members of Congress sharing bail bond links, encouraging fund-raising to get these January 6 detainees out of jail.
You see, I haven't heard those stories, and I am interested if there are some, but I haven't heard them. I have only heard the stories targeted at Trump supporters and people that committed violence here at the Capitol.
Another question that I have, Mr. Gaetz, and maybe you have seen it. I haven't. I haven't seen or heard of one of these detainees or any of the arrests charged with insurrection, yet this is the term that we hear over and over again. But do you know, Mr. Gaetz, if there have been any charges of insurrection?
Mr. GAETZ. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding back. I am unaware of any such charge. The charges that concern me most are the charges that are misdemeanor in nature that would normally result in a very quick pass through the criminal justice system, and then having someone go on with their lives.
Those charges are resulting in enhanced confinement, conditions that are not observable, and civil rights that are not identifiable when we are inquisitive to the United States Department of Justice.
The gentlewoman from Georgia compares, perhaps improperly, the BLM riots of the past summer with the circumstances of January 6. I mean, dozens of people died as a result of the BLM riots. This was not the case at the Capitol. We are not for violence of any kind.
There are plenty of places in the world, like Cuba, where political violence is necessary. By the way, the very same BLM crowd that was burning down America, that was calling this Nation racist, they have totally embraced the Cuban regime. So I guess socialism runs thicker than politics, runs thicker than blood, for sure.
So with the Department of Justice under, frankly, both President Trump and President Biden unwilling to treat the BLM terrorism for what it was, to then turn on people who potentially were not violent, charging them, holding them, depriving them of the normal array of civil rights that we would afford any American, it does make it harder to make the American case to the world.
We have already seen global leaders suggest that whatever their human rights violations, hey, America's got folks from January 6 locked up, so Vladimir Putin can kill his enemies, so other despots can justify the horrendous things they do to their people.
In the words of one of our late, great chairmen in this body, we are better than this. We should be better than this.
But we did not find better today. Today we found a Federal Government that was arrogant and recalcitrant.
{time} 2015
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Mrs. Greene) to perhaps opine on the conditions we think people might be suffering based on the attitude we encountered today.
Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
My concern is this, Madam Speaker: We let the jail know that we would be there, just like we let the Department of Justice know that we were coming ahead of time. We have sent letters and asked many questions.
The questions I had today were simple questions, just questions about what time do they get their food? What kind of food do they get? Do they have access to religious materials or a clergyman or woman of their choice? Simple questions. When do they get to go outside? I just had simple questions like that.
Of course, being in this Chamber when January 6 happened, it was a day that I did not like. I was very upset by it. I was scared by it. There have been over 500 people charged for things that they had done here at the Capitol. And I am very much interested in their right to due process, and they deserve their day in court.
But the issue for me is this: I just couldn't believe the defiance in the attitude of the people that worked in the prison, because I never saw that attitude in any other place that I visited as a Member of Congress, which hasn't been long. Of course, it has only been 7 months. But when I visited the detention center in California, all of the people there were so proud of where they work and the job that they are doing and how they are taking care of the illegal aliens that are being kept at the detention center. But we didn't see that in the people that work there.
As a matter of fact, we saw an attitude in front of cameras, in front of the press. They gave us an attitude of defiance and told us that we were trespassing. And then when we walked outside to speak to the person who we thought was a supervisor, they locked the door and would not let us back in. We were simply there not only to ask questions about the January 6 detainees, but also just about the prison overall because this is an important part of our job, oversight as Members of Congress.
So that was really concerning to me, that they would display this behavior in front of the press that we had no right to be there, that we were trespassers and they locked us out. So that gives me great concern that they don't care about what anyone thinks and they give no authority to Members of Congress.
Mr. GAETZ. And speaking of not caring, would the gentlewoman reflect on her concern about showing up at the Department of Justice and being deprived of access even to the lobby for a meeting with a senior official like the Attorney General.
I yield to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Mrs. Greene).
Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. Yes. That was my first time visiting the Department of Justice, and we had let them know ahead of time, Mr. Gaetz, Mr. Gohmert, Mr. Gosar, Mr. Biggs, and I, many of us had let them know. We have been asking questions for months. We let them know about our visit, and we are standing on the sidewalk outside the door, and we weren't even allowed past the bike racks to even go near the door. And then we weren't even invited into the lobby while we waited to find out if there was someone we could speak to.
Now, for me that was concerning. I have had a lot of death threats. I have had all kinds of threats on my life, my husband, my children, terrifying things. And as we were standing on the sidewalk, I could see many people coming down going each way. And I couldn't believe that. I was like why would the Department of Justice leave Members of Congress out here on the sidewalk in the open in the middle of a city and not bring us in the lobby just to wait to see if we had questions answered. And not only as a Member of Congress but as a woman, I just couldn't understand why we were left out there.
So that was very alarming to me. And then just to be never given an answer; no one to come and speak to us. We just had simple questions. They're not difficult questions. We are just asking how this is being investigated. And then we want to know why are these other riots not being investigated, because that truly affected the American people.
You see, January 6 affected the Capitol and Congress, but all the riots all year long affected the American people. It affected their businesses that they worked so hard in. It affected their jobs. It affected their communities. It burned their communities. It cost them so much money. There are many people that died. There are officers that have injuries that they will never recover from and billions and billions of dollars in damage. So I am very concerned about that two-
tier track justice system that should not exist in our country because, Mr. Gaetz, this is the type of stuff we see in Communist China, Communist Cuba, and I have great concern and fear of that in the United States of America.
Mr. GAETZ: It certainly is something, having listened to our Democratic colleagues for years suggest that President Trump was this grave danger to our institutions, that our institutions would fall under a time of rising economic activity and a rising sense of patriotism, and more productive sectors of our economy growing. But it seems to me that the Biden administration is doing far more damage to our institutions by concealing their actions, by deviating from normal standards of justice and process, and by having an approach that is more indicative of regimes that don't really respect checks and balances and balance of power and institutional development and growth.
I note that we are joined by the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert.) Judge Gohmert has spent time on the bench, and is now a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee. As a judge he has toured a number of corrections facilities. As a senior member of the Judiciary Committee he has been involved in drafting legislation that deal with our Federal prison system. And he joined Congresswoman Greene and I both at the Department of Justice and at the Federal Bureau of Prisons facility today and received precisely the same treatment we did.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) to reflect on those experiences.
Mr. GOHMERT. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from Florida for yielding. I was quite shocked at the treatment we received. When people who have oversight and are responsible for voting to fund or not fund Federal facilities like the one we visited, I am not used to having somebody make such an overt effort to hide everything they are doing to the extent that they would lure us outside so they could lock the door. And there were lawyers, there were defendants, there were people going through the main entrance we did, yet because we are Members of Congress, they locked the door after accusing us of being trespassers, which is a crime. And so, we may want to look at who it is that was calling us trespassers. Obviously they have got some serious training that they need to go through.
But this is nothing new and this has nothing to do with January 6, other than we have been alerted that there are people that are being mistreated.
I have been alerted to people being mistreated before and took action to see if that was true. I don't care what their political leanings are. If they are being mistreated, then something needs to be done.
Back when President George W. Bush was in office and there were abuses by the Justice Department, I was completely on the side of the Democrats. There is no place for that kind of thing, abusing people's civil rights. And we have been belittled here on the House floor, all of us here, and accused of trying to belittle what occurred on January 6. No, there were some atrocious things that happened, and there needs to be punishment for that. But there is and has been concern that there were people that didn't even know they were doing anything wrong, and in some cases were not doing anything wrong have had their homes invaded and had their door busted open.
One constituent last week called my office here in Washington to say that she was in east Texas on January 5, 6, and 7, all relevant times. She had no thought of coming to Washington. She did have a picture of Trump on Facebook. Her nephew texted her: Hey, I saw this picture. The FBI is asking who it is, and I wondered if maybe she looked familiar.
And apparently, it looked very similar to this woman, and he thought his aunt would get a kick out of that, so he sends the text with this picture. And she says: Gee, it does look like me. LOL. Don't turn me in.
Days later she has a visit from two FBI agents who demand to know where she was January 6.
Well, now as I understand it, the only contact she had with the events of January 6 was her nephew sending her that text message. And then FBI agents show up. She was not that woman, and you could see the difference. But somebody had to have been monitoring those text messages.
That was something that got me bent out of shape back in the second term of President Bush. You can't just go spying on American citizens. It is not right. And I guess it is possible that they got a FISA warrant to spy on an American citizen, but I would have hoped that the FISA judges would be a little more circumspect after we found out how abusive those FISA judges have been with just signing off on anything the DOJ wants in the way of warrants.
The Constitution requires specificity, particularity. You have got to describe the thing to be searched, the thing to be seized. And we had seen from one that WikiLeaks let go on Verizon, they said: Yeah, we just want everything Verizon has.
And the judge said: Oh, they want everything Verizon has on its customers; okay. Signs the warrant.
We cannot keep a republic with judges that have that much disdain or inconsideration of the Constitution they are sworn to follow. And the fact that no FISA judge got bent out of shape after being lied to by DOJ and the FBI is another indication we have got a tremendous amount of cleaning up to do to save our republic.
I appreciate my friend for the time, and I appreciate you having this Special Order and allowing me to participate.
General Leave
Mr. GAETZ. Madam Speaker, at this time I seek unanimous consent that all Members participating in this Special Order may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and submit extraneous material.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Florida?
There was no objection.
Mr. GAETZ. Madam Speaker, I believe this brings us to the conclusion of our Special Order time. I thank my colleagues for participating. I vow that we will continue to press these questions and to demand accountability and transparency from an administration that seems out of control.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________
SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 133
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